Hello strangers!

Another chapter in which I will be focusing on what goes on in Phoenix during the up bring of the Swan sisters. Renée continues to be a - not so good – parent, Bella is the cool kid in school and Annie proceeds to wallow in melancholy.

Happy reading!

Chapter 5. Scenes of that bustling city life.

Renée's pov:

It felt like weeks since she'd last gone out with her girls.

The café her coworker had recommended to her had such an interesting décor and an even more curious food selection! Everything in 'The Pink Pig' café seemed to be highlighted in neon colours. They even though to make the floors, ceiling and some of the walls a blue-ish black to help make everything pop! The wall behind their dusty purple booth was a hot pink covered in gorgeous golden leaves and their table a black and white dotted table. The entire wall to Renée's right was made up of windows but instead of allowing the harsh Arizona sun to seep in, the light was blocked by see-through mustard coloured curtains. And as if to bring it all together- above the stylish bar with the deep blue chairs hung a huge plate that loudly displayed words such as 'HAPPY', 'TALK', 'DRINK', 'EAT' and 'KISS' in actually rainbow neon lights! It was such a dreamy place! Renée bet that the café would be an even greater hang out spot at night, but for now she was more than happy to share one or two cute little cocktails with her coworkers before she went back home. She did, however, mentally tag the idea for a late night visit in her memory- sure that she could probably wiggle some free time into her weekend. Her daughters rarely noticed her absence once they went to asleep anyway.

"-And then-! No, no Lisa hold on- I haven't told you the worst thing yet!" Renée warned but ended up laughing through her own explanation anyway. Across from her, her coworkers- Lisa, Cynthia and Mia- were snickering along over their drinks whilst the story progressed. "And then he even had the audacity to blame me when I went to ask for my television back! Can you believe that! He just came by the day after we broke up, took the plug out of the socket without a word and then hauled that box of scrap back to his own apartment. And when I went to get it back he told me he already gifted it to his new girlfriend."

Their little group fell in hysteria as she delivered the 'punch line'. Thinking back to the day still hurt- she'd really liked the guy but he clearly wasn't ready to be in a committed relationship and she prayed that the next girl realized that before she'd get invested too. Now though, she was just happy that she could laugh about the entire thing with her friends. It made her feel better that they had all gone ahead and shared relationship flops- it made her feel normal. Like it could have happened to everyone and that she wasn't the one constantly who messed things up.

"Je-Jesus, Renée where do you keep finding these guys?!" Mia chocked out through her laughter, holding onto the edge of the table so as to not fall over. Lisa toppled a bit in her chair as she attempted to stifle her snickering and accidently spilled some of her drink onto the table- Cynthia had been smarter, ordering a straw to go with her 'sex on the beach'.

"O-oh, this one, I found about a month ago when I went clubbing at that dinky little place- a little further down the road from 'Pomo Pizzaria?- I'd gone up to the bar to order some drinks for Wren and I when he came up to me and- oh so kindly- offered to buy the drinks for me."

"So he wasn't such a bastard from the beginning then?" Lisa huffed out sharply through her nose, "Figures- they always act like such sweethearts in the beginning, don't they?"

"Oh no, he was never sweet-" Renée started and even to her it sounded oddly defensive in her ear, "he was spicy. A very hot Hispanic with lovely eyes and a charming mouth-"

"For talking?" Mia cut in innocently and the group burst out in laughter again as Renée felt her skin flush up in slight embarrassment. Their group attracted a couple of looks from the customers at other tables- they'd been getting them for the majority of the afternoon- not that she really cared. Renée just laughed along as loudly as she wanted and if the other girls noticed that she didn't necessarily object to Mia's implication than they politely didn't comment on it.

"You should know better by now that our little Renée doesn't do sweet, Mia." Cynthia pointed out once she managed to gain control back over her breathe intake. Renée blinked at that and sent the red head a wondering frown- to which her coworker chortled. "Don't look at me like that- you know it's true! I've known you for- what? Two years now? And the longest relationship you've had in that time period was with Diego- the same guy who you admitted only having slept with because he offered to fix your refrigerator as a means for foreplay."

"I've had relationships with decent guys before!" Renée stated feeling so what offended- she'd dated plenty of nice boys! Jonathan from eight grade had been entirely too sweet! Michael Davis had been her boyfriend around the time she'd graduated and he'd been sweet to her until she broke it off to move in with Jenny in Los Angles. And Charlie-

"Yeah, but you can't tell me that you don't get bored easily." Cynthia shrugged her shoulders as if to say- what can you do?- Renée frowned again and glanced over to her other girlfriends, but whatever small hope she had that they'd back her up died as Mia and Lisa avoided her eye.

"I just haven't found the right guy yet." Renée pouted, "Don't make me sound floozy just because I'm still searching."

"I did not mean it like that." Cynthia was quick to correct herself, "I just mean that you don't usually go for guys you meet at, like, the grocery store or something. That's just too… expected, you know?"

Mia furrowed up her eyebrows at Renée. "What about that guy you married before? Wasn't he nice?"

"I believed you said that he was boring too?" Lisa kindly filled in for Renée- wrongly.

Renée waved her hand as if to wave of the comment, "No no, Charlie was absolutely lovely. It was the town- Forks- that I couldn't stand. It was just so dreary all the time. Like, it rained constantly and if it didn't rain than it would snow. The people were also a tad bit unfriendly- you know, that small minded way you'd expect people living in small towns to have? Exactly like that. And every day was just- nothing ever changed. Like, I'd wake up, do housewife things, go to sleep and would do the exact same thing all over again the next day. And the next. And the next… It was horrible. I didn't want my girls to grow up there- what would they even do? Where would they learn how to be creative? They can't exactly play outside in weather like that so they would have just sat inside all day doing nothing. Being glued to the television like tiny little hypnotized potato sacks. They would have been absolutely miserable."

"Was it really that bad?" Mia wondered softly and Renée nod furiously.

Cynthia let out a thoughtful hum, "But surely there are other kids in such a town that they could have played with? Wouldn't it have been nice for them to, I don't know, have a constant group of friends growing up?"

"Kids can also have that in Phoenix," Lisa pointed out.

"Yeah, but the kids in Phoenix tend to life farther away from each other because there's just so many people around here." Mia noted absently, "and it's probably more dangerous to have kids walk around here unsupervised right? So-"

"Oh! Bella and Annie are actually very mature for their age, so I'm not too worried about things like that." Renée cut in with a small laugh, "They came out of me middle aged, I swear- they know where they can go on their own and what they need to do if strangers were to approach them. One time, when we were on one of our little road trips, we stopped at the adorable 60s dinner along the highway- and this trucker guy, right? He talked to both Bella and Annie in that same kind of voice we do, you know- that overly amazed and excited way to keep the kids' attention? I was pretty sure he wasn't a creep by the way- he felt more like this grandfatherly man who hadn't seen his own grandchildren in a while? But anyway, They were talking while I was helping out the cashier girl- she was probably new cause she had trouble remember what we had ordered- and my girls suddenly rush to me and Annie points at this poor man and yells 'stranger danger'! Or something like that. It was a bit embarrassing really, though looking back at it I suppose that I'm happy to know that they're aware of possible danger- even if it isn't actually there."

"What did the grandpa do after that happened?" Cynthia asked curiously- clearly having gotten invested in Renée's little tale as she tended to do whenever her girls were mentioned. It always struck Renée as funny how Cynthia seemed to gleam the moment kids were mentioned- obviously she couldn't have picked a better carrier.

"Oh the poor thing practically ran out of the dinner- honestly, I think I would too if I was suddenly accused of something like that…" Renée hummed out thoughtfully.

"Still though," Mia frowned, "your girls are- what? Seven? Eight?"

"They're still seven…" Renée almost felt like the words dragged on the inside of her throat. Nearly eight though. God, had it really been that long already? It barely felt like a month to her since she and her girls moved to Phoenix- had that already been four years now?

"They're still babies, Renée." Mia stressed, "Surely you must agree that kids that young shouldn't be walking alone in the city?"

"They don't walk around alone, Mia." Renée pointed out, getting a bit annoyed with her coworker's unnecessary concern. Her girls were fine. They were bright and responsible for their age. The helped with the chores and sometimes even reminded Renée of her planning and everything! "They go out together. And they also don't go into the city. They just walk around our neighborhood- really, the farthest they go on their own is the Ballet Studio and the local library. There is nothing to worry about Mia. I know my girls. I raised them, I know what they can and can't handle."

"I'm not worried about them getting lost, Renée." Mia clarified after sharing a look with Lisa, "I'm worried about what they might encounter."

Ashley's pov:

"You don't like summer vacation?" Ashley asked her seatmate in horrified astonishment, "B-but its summer vacation! It's when we don't have to get up early and go to school! And when we can go to water parks and go camping and stuff!"

Bella's frown only seemed to deepen the longer Ashley went on and her confusion grew. She didn't understand it. Couldn't imagine how someone just… disliked summer time. That it came from Bella was even more of a surprise because for as far as Ashley knew, Bella loved being out inthe sun and even went on fun little trips now and again- she already heard plenty of stories from the girl herself after all! Like how she, her mom and twin sister had gone to a snake den out in the desert and brought back that funny keychain with the googly eyes, or how they'd somehow ended up lucky enough to get a signature from this one musician she couldn't quite remember… Oh! Or how she'd almost gotten stung by a scorpion because they'd gone out to stargaze while staying overnight at a motel- It really made no sense to her that someone like Bella- one of the coolest girls in her class- didn't like summer time!

"I like it- well, partly I suppose…" Bella muttered out under her breath, the little brunette let out a huff as she moved to rest her head on the palm of her hand. It was almost impossible to hear her over the noise their classmates made, but it also wasn't something that the girls weren't used to- Ashley simply leaned in a bit closer to her friend and Bella naturally returned the gesture seemingly without even thinking about it. "I usually spend half my summer vacation with Char- I mean, with my dad in Washington-" Ashley blinked, a bit startled since before this she'd always assumed that Bella didn't have a dad. "-and it's usually really cold and wet up there, even when it's supposed to be summer."

"It rains a lot?" Ashley asked curiously, having never been outside of Arizona before herself. Where was Washington again? To the left? All the way up on the right of the map?

Bella nod furiously, her face set in a frustrated pout. "We have to wear raincoats a lot- either that or we'll eventually catch a cold. Last year I got sick for almost the entire month. It was awful. Mom said that it was to be expected- since we're just not built for such cold weather…"

"You're built different?" Ashley repeated in confusion.

Bella shrugged her shoulders, seemingly equally confused. "I guess? Annie doesn't seem too bothered by it though- since she's always happy to go there for some reason..."

Ashley let out a long hum at that. The idea of her classmate Annie being happy to do anything seemed strange to her. Unlike Bella, who was overall friendly towards her and their classmates, Annie just wasn't. Not that the other girl was a bad person or anything. But most of the time, Annie just seemed so…sad? bored? with everything. And Ashley didn't really know how Bella could feel happy being with a person like that- though she supposed that they were sisters so then maybe Bella got special treatment from Annie...? Ashley let her eyes stray over to the girl in question. Annie sat together with her seatmates for lunch, much like the rest of them- they weren't really allowed to walk around while they were having their lunch break, though Mrs. Newman sometimes allowed them to have a bathroom break anyway. The younger Swan sister didn't seem to be talking much though- if at all- and Ashley couldn't say that she was very surprised to see that the brunette attention seemed to be solemnly on whatever it was that she was scribbling in her notebook. She had a tendency to do that- most of the time, even their teacher couldn't seem to drag her away from her drawings… Ashley wasn't sure why that was though, Annie was just- Annie.

She was a shy girl, she supposed. Or, at least, Ashley though the girl must be shy. She couldn't think of another reason why Bella's little sister would act the way she did. It wasn't like there were bullies in their classroom for as far as Ashley knew. She actually got along with pretty much everyone- even some of the boys when they stopped their fake fighting and wrestling for a while. Everyone was nice enough- so then why didn't Annie make any friends? They'd asked her to play along plenty of times before- even Ashley herself had done so in the past- and even though Annie usually join in most of the time too… She rarely seemed to be having much fun while they played their games. And that somehow made it hard for everyone else to enjoy the games too... Annie just made things less fun. Ashley let out a huffy breath as she wondered why the other girl went and did that.

"I don't think Annie likes it here all that much- maybe that's why she likes going away?" Ashley wondered out loud, not even really thinking about what she said until she turned back to her seatmate and found the girl staring at her with an annoyed look. Feeling a bit embarrassed under the scrutiny of the older Swan sister, Ashley rushed to explain herself. "I mean, well, she doesn't really like playing around with us right? And she usually just sits by herself durin-"

"Annie just doesn't like school- I think that she thinks it's boring." Bella explained, sounding rather stubborn as she did so. "She's plenty happy at home and when she's doing ballet."

"So… Annie doesn't play along because we're boring her?" Ashley asked, now feeling rather insulted. "And if we were to play ballerina with her? Would she like us then?"

Bella appeared to be struggling now- seemingly unhappy with Ashley in general. "Why… do you want to befriend her so badly?"

Ashley blinked at Bella, confused as to why she wouldn't want to be friends with everybody. "I just don't understand why she doesn't like us- did we do something wrong?"

Suddenly, Bella fell silent. Ashley stared at her blank face for a while, hoping that the other girl would answer her eventually. But the longer she kept eye contact with Bella the more uncomfortable she got. There was something upsetting about the way Bella looked at her. Like she was angry for some reason. But Ashley didn't know what she'd said or done to anger Bella- was it really so bad that she wanted to be friends with her little sister? Did the brunette not want her to- maybe Bella didn't like sharing her friends with Annie? Was that why she was suddenly so- Bella shot up from her seat and her chair noisily scrapped backwards- Ashley winced at the sound, though she appeared to be the only one in the classroom who seemed bothered by it. Bella still hadn't said a word but looking at her told Ashley that the girl was somehow, and for some reason, very upset with her.

"She just doesn't like you." Bella all but grounded out and Ashley felt herself grow hot in the face, the telltale signs of tears starting to build up behind her eyes, "Stop bothering her already."

Then in the next moment, Bella had gone to ask their teacher for a quick bathroom break- leaving Ashley to burst into tears in her seat.

Annie's pov:

Sometimes it was odd how spacious and simultaneously cramped Phoenix could be. Annie supposed that it had something to do with the fact that this city had fewer, or better yet no skyscrapers. The tallest building here only being about a fourth of what Annie was used to seeing in New York. It allowed for a great view of the mountains nearby and the open air- especially so since clouds were rarely around to block the great expand of blue… But despite this abundance of unadulterated space, these streets were never not bustling to the brim with people. That it so what reflected the key aspect of the city that never sleeps was something Annie held mixed feeling over. On one hand, she enjoyed living in a city such as this, as it allowed for a lot of freedom that she priory hadn't dared to hope for at the ripe age of seven… It made her feel almost normal again- if only at intervals as it was rather hard to forget that one was the size of a tall toddler… but on the other hand, the city ambience sometimes had the unfortunate side effect of reminding her of days long past- and it hurt to remember. Sometimes she caught herself stopping in the middle of the road, searching for familiar faces because she just knew she heard one of her friends call out to her… Which was impossible, of course. But in that moment- that split second of wavering…

"Come on Annie-!" Bella called and Annie turned away from the colourful display set up in the shop window of the 'Junk Shop' thrift store to look over at her sister as the 'older' girl cutesy stamped her foot on the ground in her frustration. "Hurry up! If we're not home before Mom then she'll try to cook for us again!"

Annie was at her sister's side in a second. Hooking her arm onto Bella's elbow- much to the other girl's chagrin- and the two were off, hurrying home. Bella didn't complain about the manhandling- aside from some low grumbling- but Annie paid it little mind. Her sister knew well enough that she had some trouble walking on- well, any surfaces really. So she really didn't have much room to complain if Annie went out of her way to help her stay steady. Renée tended to call it cute how accident prone Bella seemed to be. Dropping things, stumbling over her own feet and generally just trying to keep up right like as if she were Bambi on ice… Bella had once reasoned that it was because she'd quite Ballet before she could get any real skill in- hence why Annie didn't experience as much trouble keeping on her feet. Annie once called it a balance disorder- but their mother had been quick to shut that down.

Renée, Annie had long since learned, abhorred the idea of them having any long lasting issues. A result, she was sure, of their grandmother's passing. Marie Higginbotham had died not long after they moved to Phoenix. A rather severe case of rapid onset dementia- something she managed to discovered one late night after spitting through their paper waste for her mother's opened letters… Their mom had left them at their neighbors place the week before that, and both sisters had been under the impression that Renée had only gone to visit their grandmother to ensure that the nursing home she'd been placed in was up to scratch… Now it was months later and the woman still hadn't been able to tell them of Gran's decision to perform euthanasia. Which was- well, it wasn't really fine. But Annie understood Renée's worry- intimately so. And it was for this reason only that she didn't push the woman after she returned to them- bright smile in place and corny souvenir magnets in hand. It was terrifying to think that such conditions could be passed on.

So hearing that one of her daughter might be having some balancing issues- even if they were most likely not caused by a mental disorder- probably scared Renée to no end. Their mother was suffering and dealing with a lot of things while simultaneously trying to keep up face for Bella and her. So Annie let her lie and pretend that everything was okay. knowing that, one day, most likely when they were a bit older- that she'd tell them in her own time.

What Annie didn't agree with, however, was Renée's blatant refusal to consider any possible health issues they might be having- anything none visible that is.

"We should get some more new clothes soon."

"What?" Bella balked, an expected reaction really. Her sister hated shopping for clothes.

"We've grown quite a bit and since we have a tendency to get sick over the summer… I just thought that we should probably get some warmer clothes-"

"We can't." Bella cut in, "Mom bought that television set from old man Jenkins, remember? We don't have anything to spare right now- and besides, the clothes we have still fit fine." Bella reasoned and proceeded to awkwardly wave her sleeved arm about as if to prove a point- which it actually did. They still had plenty of clothes that fit because they'd gotten into the habit of buying things a size or two bigger than necessary- new that is. They didn't really do so when they went thrifting- but Annie was confident that she could, in the very least, still recycle those into something else useful once they grew out of those.

"Well, yeah." Annie had to agree with that, "But are these warm enough for Forks? I don't want us to get sick again…" Well, she didn't want Bella to get sick again- seeing as her sister was one ear infection away from walking around like Captain Jack Sparrow.

"Then maybe we should just skip going to dad this year." Bella stated, sounding almost nonchalant if not a little hopeful. Annie all but froze in her step, giving her sister an incredulous look. "No."

"Oh, come on Annie. It isn't-"

"No."

"Annie." Bella all but pouted, "I don't like going to Forks! Dad always makes us go on those fishing trips- and I know you hate those too! We always have to stay at the house anyway since the woods are too dangerous for us alone, we always eat greasy food stuff whenever we're at dad's and it always so wet all the time! Even when it isn't raining things are wet! What's with that?! You know, maybe if we skipped a year, we could actually save up some money for a change? We won't need warmer clothes- and taking the airplane is expensive too right?! We could save that up too!"

"Dad always pays for the plane tickets." Annie pointed out angrily, "And if were to go then mom wouldn't need to worry about our food, electricity and water costs for a month. That would safe us some money."

Bella opened her mouth as if to argue- but ended up gapping her mouth a few times as no words came out. She glared at Annie then- no doubt upset, that her suggesting hadn't gone through the way she'd hoped it would. Bella crossed her little arms- stubbornly, not letting Annie hold onto her anymore as they continued their walk.

"It wouldn't be our money…" Annie eventually heard her sister mutter under her breath and she rolled her eyes.

"It wouldn't be our money either way." Annie sighed out, "Since it would be either mom or dad paying for us."

"Why can't dad just come to use for once?" Bella complained.

"He can't just leave Forks to fend for itself." Annie offered, only partly trying to be humorous. Charlie had been working like crazy for the past few years- a distraction, Annie knew- and he was steadily climbing up the ranks at the police station. She was pretty sure that he couldn't just leave for an entire month. Even now, when Bella and Annie went to Forks for their time together- he sometimes got called in to the station to help out with a situation or another.

"Nothing ever happens in Forks." Bella disagreed.

"Plenty of things happen in Seattle."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Criminals can move about just as easily as anyone else, Bella." Annie shrugged her shoulders. "Besides, don't you think that Dad wants to see us again too? I'm sure that he misses us terribly while we're here."

"Then he should just come visit us over the year."

"I already said tha-" Annie started but cut herself off as something white and billowing caught her attention, "- is that smoke coming from our house..?"

Bella made a strangled sound, as she too noticed the vapor leaving the open window on the side of their little suburban house. The two shared an identical look of panic and dread as the realization of their situation finally settled in. Mom was cooking again.

I'm not sure if euthanasia is even a thing in California and/or Arizona… But let's pretend that it's, in the very least, legal for this story's sake.

Up next, we'll be looking into how the sisters experience things while they're at Forks for the summer! (Spoiler- Annie might start tripping balls)