Chapter 4 – Feelings, observations, and meeting Esme.

What was it about being back in high school, being the new girl and all – however things were different now! Had even started somewhat earlier than she had the last time for some reason, and the halls of Forks High School were the same bleak thing she had remembered it to be.

The only, somewhat good thing about it was for the first that it was sunny – so no Cullen's. Secondly, she managed to look confident and walk as if she owned it and that made people stay away from her other than those that were confident enough to come and talk to her.

Isabella knew that getting her powers, meeting the lawyer, and going back in time had done something for her confidence in the world and in herself – she knew more about the world now. The thing was that now, no one could make her feel down on herself, that she meant something to someone out there.

Being at school and that it was sunny made her transition back to normal smoother, than what would have happened if she had seen the Cullen's at once when going back to school. Things would be different, maybe because now she wouldn't feel inferior to them because she herself has powers they wouldn't know about before she told them or that she herself had enough money to last her a couple of lifetimes.

Since going back to high school and having memories of earlier lifetimes there were a couple of unreasonable memories that came along with them. Memories of schools and knowledge that made high school boring, but she knew that if she managed to do it that she could graduate earlier. The only thing those memories could not help her with was a newer technology, but she had found in the last couple of days that she had an affinity for it.

The only unreasonable thing with her oncoming memories in her head, which had accumulated in the last couple of weeks since coming back to the past, was that it came with knowledge. Even then, there were a few things that she didn't know a whole lot about because they hadn't been invented yet in that past of hers. What she did know was that it would be easy to gain that knowledge and that she would ease her tests.

-TWILIGHT-

In her first lifetime, the first time that she saw them sitting in the cafeteria all she could feel was curiosity. Curiosity over who they were, why they weren't eating and how they could sit so completely still without doing anything. That no one questioned!

This time when the same happened all she felt for them was indifference, after everything with the nomads and Edward, made her indifferent to them all. They weren't as intriguing as they had been back then, they were normal and weirdly plain people who didn't seem to have any fun. It all made sense because she is a lot more grown-up right now than they are even if they are older than her in years. Also, back when they first met, she had been an incredibly insecure little girl that had allowed someone to rule over her decisions just because he was over a hundred, not taking the fact that his mental age was just like any other seventeen-year-old boy.

Isabella just shook her head at them because she was just not interested in becoming invested in the school drama – all she wanted was to graduate and maybe take a year off to decide where she wanted to go to university. It was done so by being a little bit advanced in her classes, so, she never had any of them with the gang something she was glad about, after all, it wouldn't do anything good to punch Edward on their 'first' meeting.

At home things were going fantastically fine, her dad was loving what she had done to her old room. However, she still had one or two things that would be needing something fixed, and her father wanted her to renovate the attic – so that she could have a space of her own in the house. The thing was that if he liked that room, she would be allowed to renovate the whole house!

That would be a great experience for her, and he had a great time doing it to her room and she really wanted to do something like it to the whole house.

After school she decided to drive towards Port Angeles and go back to her hardware store, she had usually picked out the stuff for her room – she needed some ideas about what she could do to the attic to make it homey and what needed to be done so that it could be liveable in the future. If it would be liveable, the staircase leading up to the room needed to become permanent or semi-permanent so that if there was a fire, she could come down quickly enough to save herself.

It was also so that if her father sold the home, its future owners would be able to do so without problems.

-TWILIGHT-

There were many things that this time around had taught her that she had been, she had been oblivious to others and their feelings, and she had been inconsiderate to Angela and the others in the Cullen Family.

How she managed to get feelings of familiarity with the others in that family she didn't know since she had been so infuriated with Edward that it was a wonder that she had gotten to know them. As there now were a lot of things that she could do with the attic, though, she was glad that the room was panelled and insulated, so, all she had to do was paint and do whatever she wanted with the room.

The only hardware store was in Port Angeles, and she knew that the store was frequented by Esme as we had actually talked about it and had found a common interest in home renovations. That knowledge she had gotten was from her, as in the past they had actually talked whenever she had managed to get away from Edward.

Somehow there was a lot of difference between how she had loved before and how she had behaved with Edward – she wanted love, love like she had had with Dmitri and Erik. Two completely different men, one that lived a relatively peaceful life and the other lived a life of strife and war. It hadn't been just those two that she had loved before, but there were others that she had been fond off because they had loved her with everything they had, even when socially they had to keep their affair a secret because of class differences between us.

Isabella wanted a love like that, love that they could grow into and that deepened the more they got to know one another, and that would continue to deepen even after they tied the knot.

Many, many thoughts had been cruising around in her mind as she walked through the store towards the painting section. She wanted something light, but peaceful for what was going to be her office and maybe a guest room in the future. It had to be peaceful, and as she quickly walked towards the wall where samples were hanging, she didn't see where she was going and bumped into someone.

"I'm sorry, I did not see where I was going," Isabella said and apologized to the woman who stumbled a little bit.

"It's alright dear, I didn't see you either." The woman said, and she herself was shocked because since she had turned no one had managed to make her stumble or that she hadn't seen coming.

"It's alright, I'm Isabella Swan." Isabella greeted her first, as she couldn't go around saying her name without having gotten to know her name first, and there was a reason for it because she knew her.

"Esme Anne Cullen-Platt." Esme introduced herself quietly, maybe a little bit shy at first because a little while ago she had gone back to placing her maiden name together with her new family's name. "If it's not too much, can I ask you something?" Esme asked her lovingly because something told her that the girl needed a friend.

"You may!" Isabella told her with a smile, loving the way Esme asked her because already things were changing for the better.

"Have we met before?" Esme asked curiously because something seemed familiar about the girl, "I work here, so, do you need help or are you looking on your own?" she inquired politely.

"No, I don't think so moved here a couple of weeks ago." Isabella started to say, "I am renovating the attic, and I need a perfect colour for it. It's going to be an office slash guest bedroom." She said, though, she hadn't known that she had worked in a store as when she knew her, she had worked from home.

"It's not often I see a young girl like you renovate something, and I am only working here part-time, some days in the week," Esme told the girl, it hadn't been a conscious decision to share even that much with the girl, and it was so unusual that it shocked her a little bit to have done so. "Are you interested in interior design or architecture?"

"I'm doing it for my father, and I am set to graduate in the spring if I want to. Not sure if I am interested in that, but it's something to do other than schoolwork. You?" Isabella asked her, as she followed her towards where the paint was to be found.

"Yeah, I travel a lot since I restore old houses, and work from home as I love to design houses and make them look great," Esme told her proud of what she had managed to achieve in her life since there had never been much when it came down to living as she and her family did.

"That sounds actually quite fun. I am contemplating using a gap year to travel around the world, though, haven't quite figured out where to start yet." Isabella said with a skip in her step and began to look at the different colours that were on display.

"Did you want a calm colour, or something homey and warm?" Esme asked the now excitable girl, though, it was good that she wasn't like Alice in that way that she was it all the time. "If I absolutely must recommend a place to start, I will say England or Scotland. If you are interested in old history."

"I want something calm, but warm," Isabella told her, as she was drawn to a special blue colour that she loved. "Thanks, for the advice. I will take it into account."

"You're Welcome!" Esme thanked her with a smile, feeling the peacefulness radiating out of the girl in spades. "I see you like this; it is called Deco Blue. It is a beautiful colour to have on the walls."

After they had figured it out, they began to talk about everything – their family and other non-quintessential things. While Isabella figured out what more to buy the room, what colours fitted the blue and things that were going to be well off with it.

"If you want to talk some more, here is my number. I hope we will meet up sometime in the future!" Isabella said and handed over a piece of paper with her number on it to Esme as they said their goodbye by her car.

"Thank you, and I will send you a message later. I would love to meet up again." Esme told her warmly and took the piece of paper and quickly hid it in one of her pockets.

After saying goodbye, Isabella managed to make her way home to start on her transformation of the attic. When she got a text message, 'It was nice meeting you, shall we meet up tomorrow?'

It was great to hear from Esme again and know that things were normal as they could be, and that they were going to be friends after everything. So, she decided to say yes to meeting up the next day in a cafe, and at a small park in Port Angeles.

AN:

What the heck, my muse is veining. I love what I've created, but I am losing inspiration for how things will continue going forwards.

I think this story will go on Hiatus, for the foreseeable future – though, I will continue it as I won't drop it!