The characters belong to Stephanie Meyers

Chapter 4

Bella was sorely disappointed to find out Charlie was serious about introducing her to other kids.

After they went out and she got a bookcase of her choosing and a few more sets of sheets and blankets he brought her to a store called Newton's Olympic Outfitters.

According to Charlie, the Newton family had only been here for four years. Mr. Newton decided he wanted to slow down in life. So when he heard the sporting goods distribution chain he was working for was selling a few of their stores, he jumped on the opportunity to buy one. A few weeks later he packed up his family and moved to Forks and opened the sporting goods store.

It was Charlie's favorite store. He now got all his fishing, hunting, hiking, and camping equipment from this store.

"You can't go wrong there Bell, they sell the best." He bragged.

When they walked into the store they were greeted by a thin, petite woman who had platinum blonde hair and fair skin. She looked like somebody Bella would have seen in the city. The way her nails were perfectly manicured and the fact that she was wearing a simple blue dress that tapered her waist and accentuated her curves with a pair of red high heels on her feet made this woman look like the last place she belonged was behind the counter of a sporting goods store.

"Charlie, how is my favorite police chief today?" She said with a little too much enthusiasm for Bella.

"Karen, what a pleasure to see you on this fine day." Fine day? Bella turned to look at the gray sky outside. Was Charlie insane?

At first, Bella thought perhaps Charlie had come here to see this woman, maybe she was his girlfriend. She wished she was right.

"Bell, this lovely woman is Mrs. Newton. Karen, I would like you to meet my daughter Isabella. I thought maybe if Mike was here with you today he could show Bella around a little bit."

"Oh, yes he is. He's just in the back. Let me go get him."

Mrs. Newton hurried toward a door at the back of the store. She soon came back with a boy around Bella's age tagging behind her. He had the same platinum blond hair as the woman, but he was a tiny bit taller and bulkier than she was. His features were rounded giving him a babyface appearance.

Her mother would say he was handsome and then tease Bella about maybe this one could be her first boyfriend. She's been saying stuff like that since Bella was ten. She was pretty sure her mother was joking, but with Renee, it was hard to tell.

"Isabella, I'd like you to meet my son Michael. Mike dear, Chief Swan was hoping you would make young Isabella feel welcome and show her around the neighborhood."

Bella looked at Charlie. Did he really want her to go with this boy? Not even Renee would make her do that.

Mike looked happy enough to comply. She was guessing he was getting out of doing some work. Showing a kid his own age around the neighborhood sounded better than working for his parents.

"Take your time and enjoy the day out." Charlie insisted "I'll meet you at the diner in a couple of hours."

a couple of hours? Charlie was really leaving her alone with a boy she didn't know for a couple of hours. She opened and closed her mouth looking like a fish. She truly did not know how to respond to this.

She reluctantly followed the boy Mike, outside "So, Isabella, right?" he asked.

"It's just Bella." She told him.

"Okay, cool." He seemed nervous. "Where do you want to go first?"

She asked his opinion not knowing anything to do or anywhere to go around here. "There's a couple of museums. We have the timber museum and then there's a new one. It's called John's beachcombing museum."

She opted to start with the second one. Mike said it was opened a few months ago. There was a huge structure made of buoys. "They measured it at forty feet tall,"

Inside there were collections of many things. Things she wouldn't even think they would find on the beach. She didn't know what was more strange, the collection of random shoes or the collection of doll heads which were titled "(doll world) how to get ahead in life." just the right amount of creepy and funny.

There were glass bottles and jugs lined up on most of the walls. They had obvious things like sand dollars, sharks teeth, pufferfish, mermaid purses, shells, and coral. There was even a whale's skull.

There were sculptures made from garbage and debris they found.

The thing Bella liked most was the letters in the bottles. The thought of it was romantic in her mind. she smiled at the thought of a story. A man lost at sea sending letters in bottles to his love back home.

"So you really like this place." Mike interrupted her thoughts.

"Huh?" She said dumbly, blinking herself back to reality.

"The museum. You seem to really like it." He pointed at her face.

She reached up and touched her face realizing she had a goofy grin on. "Oh, yeah, it's cool." The grin dropped off as her embarrassment took hold.

"So, what do you want to do next?" he smiled happily at her, completely oblivious to her social awkwardness.

"I don't know. I've only been here for a day."

Mike bit his lip. "Well, how old are you? What school year are you in?"

"I'm fourteen. I'm about to be a freshman." Finely, questions she could answer.

Mike's face lit up. "Me too! Hey, how about I take you to where my friends and I hang out. I could introduce you around."

Bella pondered this for a minute. She wasn't interested in meeting new people, but maybe, a bigger group would work in her favor. "Okay." She accepted before she could overthink it.

Her brain would have thought of hundreds of reasons not to go meet his friends. As nice as Mike was, she really did not want to be alone with him. It was too much one-on-one interaction. She needed his focus off of her.

They talked while they walked. "So, do you ride a bike?" Mike inquired.

"Yes." she hesitated. she could, it was just that her natural clumsiness had her on the ground more often than most other people.

"That's great, you'll need one. This town is small but you need something with wheels to get you to the best hangouts. I mean unless you have your parents drive you everywhere, but then you have to adhere to their schedule." His nervousness was starting to vanish.

"I guess I'll have to get a bike then." She wondered if Charlie had an old one she could use. She'd have to ask him later.

Bella felt like they were walking for a long time when they finally came to a stop. Though most of this place was surrounded by trees there were spots that were drastically different. This was one of those spots.

There was about an eight-foot-wide opening into a clearing. Although it was still obviously damp, only part of the clearing had the usually present trees framing only one small side. The rest of the naturally formed wall was made of a small mountain that ranged between twenty to forty feet tall. The ground had sparse patches of grass but was mostly bare dirt, sand, and small rocks.

Towards the back of the clearing was a gazebo with a couple of picnic tables. They're sitting on and around one of those picnic tables were; who she assumed to be Mike's friends.

when they saw him, they immediately included him in their conversation like he was there the whole time. when they saw her they all went silent.

A small girl with bouncy curls cleared her throat, "Who is this?" Bella was sure she did not intend her tone to be spiteful.

Mike either didn't notice or didn't care. He smiled real big at her and said. "Jess, everyone, this is Bella." He announced as if she was someone special. "She is chief swan's daughter. He wanted me to show her around," he bragged.

"So?" A girl with long silky blond hair asked.

"So, I thought you all would want to meet her before school starts." The blond girl still looked unimpressed. "You know since she is in our grade." Mike tried again.

A thin tall girl with dark hair stood and walked toward them. "Hi, Bella. it's nice to meet you. I'm Angela." She smiled widely and stuck her hand out to shake.

Bella smiled back "Hi, it's nice to meet you too."

The rest of the group followed suit. Eric, Ben, Austin, and Tyler all happily introduced themselves.

The curly-haired girl, Jess, looked between Bella and the blond. Then she stood as tall as she could, swiftly stuck out her hand, and said "Jessica."

Bella took her offered hand and Jessica gave one solid shake, then marched over and stood beside Mike. She crossed her arms and looked at Bella as if to say he is claimed, look elsewhere.

The group's eyes all looked at the blond. She was lounging propped up on one elbow studying the nails of her other hand. Her legs hung off the side of the table and her feet rested on the bench. She was pretending not to notice the eyes all focused on her.

"Laur!" Tyler snapped.

"What?!" She snapped back.

He made a hand gesture toward Bella looking at her imploringly. She huffed.

"Fine!" She looked over at Bella. "I'm Lauren." Then looked back at him. "Happy!"

He nodded his head.

"I'm bored. I'm going home. Tyler, I might see you tonight. That is if I can't find something better to do. Jess, are you coming?" Lauren said as she walked away.

"No."

Lauren turned around with a shocked look on her face. Jessica took a step closer to Mike. Lauren nodded in understanding.

"You should really take my advice." She said, then turned on her heel and continued to walk away.

Jessica blushed a bright red.

"That is if I can't find something better to do?" Eric asked Tyler. "Dude why do you keep going back to her?"

"You know why," he answered suggestively.

The boys chuckled, and most if not all of their group blushed. Bella didn't ask. She was sure she didn't want to know why. They asked her a few questions like, "Where are you from?", "Why did you move here?", and "If you're from Arizona, why are you not tan?" simple things, but they were enough that Bella was beginning to regret saying yes to meeting them.

Eventually, though they ran out of things to ask. Eric, Ben, Austen, and Tyler broke off into their own conversation. Mike tried to join them but Jessica was insistent on having his attention on her.

That left Bella and Angela. It was then that she realized how quiet Angela was. Other than introducing herself, she hadn't said a word. Angela looked over at Bella like she wanted to say something but was unsure if she should. she bit her lip, then made her decision.

"It must be hard." She smiled shyly at Bella. "All the big changes in your life."

"It is a little overwhelming," Bella admitted.

"Well if you ever want to talk, I'm a good listener," she offered kindly.

Bella smiled at her genuine offer. "Thanks."

Then they sat there quietly, just watching everyone else. That's when she decided she liked Angela. She was easy and comfortable to be around. If nothing else Bella was sure she would have, at least one friend here.

It was about five-thirty when Mike said he better get Bella to the diner. He was still unable to shake Jessica. He gave the small girl an exasperated look when she insisted on coming with them. Fortunately for Bella, Angela said she wanted to take the walk too.

Mike walked ahead with Jessica hanging on his arm, while Angela and Bella walked side by side trailing behind them. When they got to the diner Charlie insisted on her "New friends," staying and eating with them. At least she had company when other people pulled him into conversations.

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