Chapter Two Pranks

I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock, realizing that I must have dozed off last night. Groaning, I slowly got out of bed. I had a monstrous headache, so I shuffled into the bathroom and grabbed a couple aspirin. Turning to go downstairs, I glanced at my reflection in the mirror. I had dark rings under my eyes, and my hair had grown longer and wilder without my notice. Sighing, I turned away. My appearance didn't really matter to me anymore.

"Good morning, Bella," Charlie said cheerily, as I stumbled into the kitchen. He was frying something on the stove. I raised my eyebrows. Charlie didn't normally cook. Being a bachelor for 18 years, he had lived on take-out and cold pizza before I had come to live with him.

"Bacon?" he asked, and set a plate of it on the table.

"You're cooking?" I asked, glancing sideways at the plate.

"I cook a lot," he said indignantly. I rolled my eyes and sat down. Charlie muttered something about ungrateful daughters under his breath.

After breakfast was finished and Charlie had left for work, I walked over to my truck. Yawning, I climbed in. It was a rare sunny day in Forks, but suddenly I felt chilled. I had the strangest feeling that someone was watching me, but when I looked around, I didn't see anyone. Stop it, I told myself as I started the engine. Stop hoping its him. The dull roar comforted me as I made my way to school that morning.

I tuned out the various voices like I did everyday, and in turn, I was ignored. The day progressed as usual, but I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching me. I was mentally scolding myself in History when an earsplitting scream sounded in the hallway. Everyone spilled out of the classroom, curious to see the cause of the disruption. A girl stood in the middle of the hallway, pale and shaking.

"What's going on, young lady?" asked one of the teachers.

The girl pointed a trembling finger at the front door. "Rats," she whispered. I turned and saw that there were indeed two dead rats lying in front of the door. Looking around, I also spotted one in front of every classroom doorway. People began muttering to each other, looking confused.

"Please, everyone. Get back to class. We'll take care of this," said the teacher.

I paid no attention when class had resumed, instead I wondered about the prank. Who would do such a thing? I was grateful for the distraction, though, because it kept my mind away from other things. When we walked back into the hallway after class was over, the rats were gone. From the confused look on the teacher's face, I figured that she hadn't yet had a chance to move the rats. I shook my head. Dead rats appearing and disappearing was incredibly weird. At least it made for an interesting day.

While I was making dinner that night, Charlie walked into the kitchen. "I heard you had a prank pulled at your school today," he said, eying the clam chowder I was preparing.

"Yeah, it was kind of strange," I said. There was no use asking him how he had heard. Being a police chief of a small town, Charlie knew almost everything that went on.

"Huh. Well, it was probably just a couple of kids with too much time on their hands," he replied, and the subject was dropped.

Later, after I had finished clearing the table, I decided to get some of my homework done. The day had provided a much needed distraction for me, but now that I was alone, I could feel my composure begin to crumble. Taking deep breaths, I walked into my room and sat at my desk. The computer was as slow as ever, and as I waited for it to log on, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Turning, I noticed something on my nightstand. How had I missed it earlier? Walking closer, I saw that it was a vase with a bouquet of dead flowers. There was something oddly familiar about the bouquet. A note was written on thick vellum under the vase. As I read it, I began to shiver. Abruptly, I realized where I had seen the bouquet before. It was from my dream the other night. I had been so distracted today that I had completely forgotten about it. Suddenly I felt so tired I could barely stand. I swayed, and barely had enough time to make it to the bed before I was swallowed in darkness.