A/N: Mild swearing ahead, but then you're reading the mental dialogue of a teenager... As usual, no copyright infringement intended. Twilight universe does not belong to me etc. etc.
I wake up in an unfamiliar room, my neck stiff, my mind disoriented. Where am I? What happened? What am I doing on a sofa? And then events of yesterday come back. Painting the room with Angela and Jess, Charlie pulling an all-nighter, I must have fallen asleep in the living room. I get up and stretch, it's only three in the morning. I freshen up and start rereading Pride and Prejudice. It's probably better not to move the furnitures right now. Thankfully, Angela had thought ahead and advised me yesterday to keep everything I needed for today, ready, somewhere else.
As my eyes skim over the same page for the fifth time, I close the book with a huff. I still can't get my mind off Saturday evening. Why did I hear Him cautioning me? Is He stalking me? Did I want Him to stalk me? Ugh! No! But it would be just like Him, believing himself to be some guardian angel. But why would He do that after loosing interest in me? He was done playing with the human. He made it very clear. I wipe the tear off my cheek with jerky, angry swipes. I need to know what's going on. I'll find out.
I call Charlie as I make breakfast after my run. He'll go investigate the trail again, I try to keep my fussing to a minimum. I should get a cellphone, it'll be easier to keep in touch with Charlie in situations like this. I get ready on autopilot and start for school.
The day pass without event. School is as usual, and I drive to the Newton's as per routine. As I drive past the junkyard, an idea plants it's seed in my brain. There can be two reasons for me hearing His voice as far as I can see. Either He really is stalking me, which is hurtful, creepy, disturbing, totally senseless, creepy, absurd, did I say creepy? Or, I'm pathetic and delusional and conjuring up his voice in my moments of distress. But they have a common factor, danger. I need to find out what's going on, or it'll drive me crazy. But, if I could put myself into a potentially dangerous situation, where the danger factor can be controlled or contained, I can figure out for sure.
And that's when I pass the skeletons of two motorcycles, and the plan solidifies in my head. I hum a tune the rest of the way.
Charlie is home by the time I return from my shift. He looks exhausted, but pleasantly surprised as I pull him in for a hug.
"We need a cellphone." I tell him seriously.
It breaks my heart to see Charlie look so flabbergasted that someone is worrying about his safety. I shake my head as I head to the kitchen to throw in something for dinner.
"Er, the kitchen looks good." Charlie says from the doorway, rubbing his neck uncomfortably.
"Oh" I have forgotten about the kitchen cabinets, "I had some paint left over, do you mind?" It is too late if he does, but I ask nonetheless.
"No, no it looks good." He mumbles. He doesn't look unhappy though, so I let the topic drop.
Charlie tells me about his fruitless investigation during dinner. The hikers were lost and must have come upon a slumbering bear by accident, they have concluded.
I put the furnitures back into their places after dinner and survey my room. It does look different, much warmer and stylish somehow, like a room belonging to an adult. I like it. I putter around, moving stuff here and there, play around with the camera. The photos came out good from yesterday. I decide to take the camera to school tomorrow and click some more photos of all my friends before we all leave for college. I click some idle photos around my room, of my desk as it already begins to accumulate my clutter, my trusty cactus from Phoenix, the dreamcatcher Jacob gifted me, although it doesn't seem to work for me.
I show the photos to Jess and Angela the next day at lunch, we laugh again at our paint splattered faces. Angela scrolls to the next photos.
"Hey! Is this your room?" She gives me an impressed look.
"Um, yeah." I blush. Angela is the photographer for the school magazine. She always carries her camera in her bag.
"They are good, Bella." She tells me, still looking at the screen, "Eric! Look." She thrusts the camera at Eric.
Eric leans in to take a look, "Oh, good shot Angie, are you doing aesthetics?"
"No, it's Bella's." She shoots me a proud look.
"Really?" Eric looks surprised, "I didn't know you were into photography, These are good. Are you into nature photography? Angie is good, but she's more into portrait and street photography."
"Whoa, breathe dude." Mike slaps him on the back.
"You should get a professional camera." Eric tells me, completely ignoring Mike.
"Um, ok. I'll think about it." I take my camera back from Angela.
Finally the week passes and it's Saturday. Charlie and I are finishing our breakfast when Charlie breaks the silence.
"So what are you planning to do today?" He swigs the rest of his coffee.
"I don't know." I shrug, "What about you?"
"I was thinking of visiting Billy and Harry down in La Push. You remember Harry? He fell down the stairs last week."
"Oh, do you mind if I go with you?" I sip on my coffee, hoping it makes me sound nonchalant.
"You want to go to the Rez?" Charlie sounds astonished, I can't blame him, I have never shown any inclination in visiting the Reservation before. I didn't have many friends there during my annual visits. Rachel and Rebecca Black were just as shy as I was, Leah Clearwater was too cool to hang out with, Jacob was just a cute toddler who followed us around and I had the unfortunate propensity of falling headfirst into tide pools.
"Sure" I say, "I have nothing to do here. I can always hang out with Jacob."
"Sure, we can go in a couple hours." Charlie sounds very pleased.
"Cool, let me take some photos of my room, I want to show Jacob how it looks like after the paint."
Jacob's polite smile turns into a huge grin as he catches sight of me climbing out of the passenger seat. We go check on Harry Clearwater first. He seems to be doing better. He must have heard about the Cullens, both he and his wife Sue gives me sympathetic smiles. Their son, Seth waves at us with a boyish smile and ducks his head as Charlie ruffles his hair. Leah gives us a stiff but polite smile and disappears from view.
Jacob pushes Billy's wheelchair into the room then and soon they are caught up in stories from Charlie's work and tribe's tidings, they exchange worried looks as Charlie tells them about the dead hikers but refrain from commenting much. We have lunch at the Clearwaters, Sue is an excellent cook and there is also Harry's famous fish fries on offer, so lunch is very satisfying and boisterous. After lunch Jacob and I decide to walk around a little bit, and so comes the opportunity I have been looking for. I show him the photos I clicked, he looks very pleased with the look and manages to take the whole credit himself.
"So, apart from giving people decoration advice, what are you upto? Your Rabbit's all done, right?" I keep my eyes on the beach, don't rush Bella, don't rush.
"Yeah, nothing much right now. I'd love to start something new. But I've blown through my pocket money upgrading the Rabbit." Jacob says wistfully.
I feel a little guilty for setting a trap like this, but it's not like he won't like it.
"Well I saw these two bikes the other day at the junkyard and I thought of you." I kick a pebble.
"Um, wow, thanks I guess."
"No, no." I snort, "I thought how cool it would be if we could salvage those bikes, one for each." I smirk at him. He gapes at me.
"You know Charlie will kill me, right?"
"Does Charlie come into your garage?"
"Well, no."
"Does Billy?"
"Um, no."
"So the only people who can tell Charlie is you or me. Are you gonna tell Charlie, Jacob?" He opens and closes his mouth a couple times, and then shakes his head.
"I can't believe you." He mumbles at last.
"So?" I watch him, trying to hide my anxiety. I fervently hope that I haven't miscalculated and he's not going to rat me out to Charlie.
"When can we pick them up?" He grins at me.
We meet up at a burger joint near the Newton's the next day, after Charlie has left on a fishing trip with Mark. The junkyard guy was planning to just take the bikes apart and sell them out. We convince him to part with them intact. Between Jacob's bulk and me being Chief Swan's daughter, we don't have to burn a hole in our pockets.
The bikes look pretty solid and heavy from up close. But Jacob picks them up and loads them on the bed of my truck. The junkyard guy and I both watch him with our mouths open.
"Seriously dude, are you on steroids? Those aren't good for you, you know." I tease him on our way back to the Rez.
"Says the girl who's building a bike in secret." Jacob rolls his eyes. We grin at each other. This is the coolest thing ever.
I wake up one morning and it's Christmas week, and it's white out. I have been jogging almost every morning, but I have never ran on ice, hell, I can't even walk on ice without danger. I really should have taken up Mike on his offer to help me choose a trail running shoe. Never mind, I'll do that later today. Now though, I tiptoe to the backyard to capture the landscape.
Charlie surprises me with a small balsam fir on the corner, we put a bunch of string lights around it, and call it a day and celebrate with hot chocolate.
On Christmas morning, I put Charlie's present under the tree on my way out to jog. Charlie looks happy during breakfast. He is finished before me and starts rubbing his hands as soon as I'm done. I look at him with suspicion. He's definitely upto something.
"Presents!" He announces.
"Alright, let's see what we've got." I get up to sit beside the tree.
There are two packages underneath. One has the watch I bought for Charlie, another is bigger, but flatter. I hand him his package and pull the other one to me.
"Wow Bella, this is a nice watch!" He puts it on, it looks good on his wrist.
"It's waterproof, I figured it'd come in handy. It suits you." I shrug and continue opening my gift.
There's a white box inside, my mouth falls open.
"D-dad, it-it's a MacBook Pro. How? I mean…" My mind shuts down on me. That's way more than what I expected Charlie to spend on Christmas. Charlie looks embarrassed.
"Um, I got a good deal on eBay, your mother keeps telling me she gets things cheap there. I don't trust those guys, but this guy seemed decent enough. He even said he has family here, don't know of any McCartys around here, anyway…" I finally cut off his babbling with a hug.
"It's a wonderful, Dad, thanks."
"Yeah, er, I was planning to buy it for your graduation present, but I figured it's more useful now, what with the college applications... Okay, I'll shut up now."
I grin up at him. For a few glorious moments, I'm whole, I'm loved and everything is fine in the world.
I transfer my stuff from my old computer to my MacBook. My. MacBook. Oh it's awesome! I have been saving money for a laptop since I came here and saw the state of the computer here. But now Charlie's taken care of it. I can buy a phone and have money left over to buy a camera.
I kind of feel guilty about building a bike behind Charlie's back. I don't even know what I'd do with it apart from riding around the Rez. And then there is the chance that Harry or Billy will see us riding it and tell Charlie. But It was just something so cool and exciting, something I haven't felt for a long time.
I visit La push almost every other day during the Christmas Break. Charlie looks pleased with the thought of me socialising more, and I'm reluctant to disabuse him of the notion. Jake and I spend the entire time working on our bikes. We make couple more trips to the junkyard for some other parts, some we have pulled in money and ordered online. It's a riot working with Jake. He has unlimited knowledge about anything that runs on wheels and a secret stash of beer. I even get to hang with Quil Jr. and Embry sometimes. Seth has come by to say hello, but Leah doesn't seem to like us much.
One day we go out on a hike for a change. Is it my imagination or am I stumbling less on the roots and loose rocks? We sit and look at the tide pools and enjoy our cans.
"So Bella, any plans for college?" Jake asks, leaning on his elbow.
"No, I'm still thinking about it. I am not sure what major to choose. I don't know what I want to do yet." A breeze comes up from the sea and tangles up my hair. I pull it up in a messy bun and watch as Jake's long hair sways like a dark curtain.
"What about you?" I ask him, "Do you know what you want to do?"
"Something with cars I guess." He takes a swig off his can, "Engineering won't be bad, automobile or mechanical. We'll see, I still have time."
"Yeah."
The sky has gotten dark as I drive home, the road sleek with rain, my mind still caught up with the conversation. I have decisions to make and I feel like I'm running out of time. I had fully made up my mind to just go with an English Literature major. I had always had a fascination with literature, and books had always been my sole companion. So it was a straight forward thing to do, finish my studies, go into teaching, before I met the Cullens. Then I saw Carlisle and I wanted to be like him, competent, compassionate, respectable, someone to look upto. I had my life planned, once I became a vampire, it didn't matter where I went to college, I could study whatever I wanted, I could be whatever I wanted to be. Once the bloodlust was controlled, I could be a doctor like Carlisle. Sure it would take a hundred years, but I could do it. And I could help people, like, I could save lives. And now I am just a human girl who faints at the smell of blood. Working in a hospital, what a joke- "Bella, LOOK OUT!"
Another headlight almost blinds me from the opposite direction. I have drifted onto the wrong lane without noticing. I swerve to the side of road and hit the break. The tires screeches in protest, and then everything is still. I frantically look around, my heart hammering madly somewhere in the vicinity of my throat. I have not noticed when the storm has picked up, I should not be driving in this weather. But I'm stuck in an empty stretch of road between Forks and La Push.
And there is also the elephant in the cabin. I have heard His voice, again, alerting me just in time to avoid a head on collision, just as clear as if He is sitting beside me. There is no way I could have picked up anyone's voice from outside my truck with the way the wind was roaring outside. I am hallucinating His voice, and I have chosen a godawful moment to have this epiphany. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
I lift my head from the steering wheel as I manage to calm down, and open my eyes, I don't even remember closing them. I start my truck and with utmost care bring 'Ol Rusty back on road. I do the slowest and most cautious driving of my life as I get back home, my hand still trembling from stress.
Charlie looks up shocked as I stumble in, "Bella! My god! What're you doing out in this weather?"
"Um, I got late leaving the Rez, didn't realise it was this bad." I mumble. "Gotta take a shower, I'm cold."
"Yeah, ok. I hope you don't get sick." Charlie frets as I climb the stairs.
As I come down bundled up after the shower, Charlie has warm fish fries and hot coffee waiting for me. I smile gratefully at him and dig in with gusto.
A/N: Once again thank you all for the reviews, they inspire me a lot.
To Sharpeyes, I adore "No Choice" by glasscanon, but I'll not follow the same storyline, I'd rather recommend people to go check it out, cause it's one of the stories that inspired me to tell my own. That being said, I have my own storyline fleshed out, and the supernatural world will be back with a bang, have no worries.