Ok, here we are, the first proper chapter. -drum roll please-I worked out kind of a little plan for the first few chapters last night so we'll see where it goes. I watched 'American Beauty' last night, was struck by how good it actually is. Sorry, that's completely irrelevant, it might influence things later on though, especially when it comes to the rose ;)
Disclaimer- This is the result of my own imagination. I don't own any of the Disney characters, settings, music etc. etc. It all goes to the man and his mouse.
Bella
Bella walked slowly down the main street, despite the hustle and bustle of the people around her. Her eyes were fixed upwards, her bag swinging by her side. She was day-dreaming again, and determined that no amount of shoving and sharp Excuse me!'s were going to stop her. Unaware of the glances and whispers that followed her every step, she continued ambling towards the edge of town and the deep, dark forest beyond it.
"Bella!" shouted Tristan, but in vain, because she could not hear him-a gentle hum replacing any other sounds in her ears
"BELLA!"
Still getting no response,Tristan ran up behind her, followed closely, as always, by his friend Luc
Bella jumped, giving a little shriek, at the sudden tap on her shoulder. Turning around furiously, she locked eyes with the most handsome man in town. Tristan met her icy gaze with a large toothy grin. "Hi, Bella!"
Bella's cheeks were highly flushed, still recovering from her cruel knock back into reality, whichTristan noticed and decided it meant that she, like every other girl in town, found him irresistible. His grin widened further.
"Hi Tristan. How are you today?" she replied.
"I'm great, thanks for asking. Just wondering if you'd given any thought to my proposal yet?."
Bella's mind went blank. Then she remembered, the day before yesterday,Tristan had asked her to be his date for some party his father was planning.
"Oh….." she stammered. "I totally forgot. I'm sorry."
Tristan's smile didn't move. "It doesn't matter. You can give me your answer now." He stared at her, as if daring her to say anything other than 'Yes.'
"Erm……"Bella started, wondering how to continue as she did not want to offend Tristan "I…I….I'm not sure if I can. It's my dad, you see. He might need some help in his lab."
Luc, hiding behind Tristan, snorted. "Oh, yeah, right!"
Tristan chose to ignore Luc, focusing instead on the unbelievable; Bella was turning him down.
Bella continued. "He's going to the patent office tomorrow, you see. He needs to get it finished. I'm sorry, Tristan. I have to go."
And with that she hurried off toward her father's house before Tristan could protest.Tristan stared after her, a slow fury starting to burn behind his eyes.
"I don't know why you bother with her." piped up Luc "She's not even that pretty. Why don't you ask Lydia, or Mandy?" He referred to two beautiful statuesque model-types that often cast puppy-dog eyes in Tristan's direction, but Tristan dismissed Luc's suggestion with a grunt.
"I HAVE to have her. She's…..she's……"
"Unobtainable, deluded, anti-social…." Luc listed her qualities on his chubby fingers. "You could do so much better."
Tristan was silent for a moment. Then, with a slight air of menace, he said "She'll come round."
……………………………………………………………………………
From the other side of the road, Bella stared in disbelief at her constant pursuer and his hanger-on. She couldn't understand why he kept asking her out. After all, she was nothing special to look at. There were plenty of other girls in town who would gladly cut off their right ear if it meant Tristan would look at them twice. Part of her told her she was being unreasonable.Tristan was the town stud and he wanted her….true he was arrogant and conceited, but at least he spoke to her face to face. Everybody else spoke behind her back or over her head.
It had been the same day after day since she and her inventor father had moved to the pleasant rural town six months ago from the city. The community all had their own little clique's-Bella and her father were outsiders. The few social invitations they had had when they first moved in had dwindled-most people deciding that they were rude and unsociable because they had not jumped at the chance to attend karaoke night at The Old Bell or the annual hog-roast. They refused to accept that Morris's time was taken up in his workshop, and that Bella found it difficult to fit in among the town's rowdy and overbearing youth.
Bella sighed, shrugged and continued to walk down the road, allowing her imagination to once again rule her head.
Woohoo. There it is. Once again, please read and review with CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Any flamers will be bludgeoned with a dog statue…twice! (anyone else see Eastenders last night? Lol)
Thank you to LumBabsFan and TrudiRose-my first reviewers! Yay! I can see the non-literal beast thing causing problems for me later on, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Thanks for the encouragement-makes me feel all fuzzy inside :), or that could just be the soup I had earlier…..
