Chapter Four: Why it's Charlie and not dad
"Hey dad how was work," Bella asked forcing a smile on her face as she saw the man.
"Good, how was your first day of school?" He asked as he began eating the food she had prepared for him not seeming to notice that she wasn't eating anything.
"Nothing much, I mostly hung out with Emmett Cullen." Bella said shrugging surprised when Charlie turned bright red.
"He's too old for you. I don't want you going out alone with him; he could take advantage of you easily. He's such a big guy and you're so small plus he's a senior!" Charlie said firmly.
"Thanks for the concern but he has a girlfriend, I can take care of myself, and I'm a senior too." Bell said calmly wishing she could roll her eyes.
"No you're not; you were only a sophomore when your mom and Phil died." Charlie said calmly.
"Yeah and I was gone for a year after that, I'm eighteen now which makes me a senior. I'm taking enough classes right now that I should be able to graduate in the spring and go off to college like I'm supposed to." Bella said wishing he hadn't brought up her parents.
"But you just got here! I can't let you go so soon." Charlie disagreed.
"Sorry but you're going to have to, I want to do something with my life and for that to happen I need to go to college."
"I know, but Bella it's hard for me to think about you leaving so soon after I just got you back. I never got to see you after your mom met Phil; it was like he stole you guys away from me! And then after they got married they turn up dead and you were just gone. You can't imagine what that was like for me!"
"And you can't imagine what it was like for me. You don't know the first thing about either of them; they were happy together and deserved each other. He never took us away from you, I stopped coming to Forks long before he and mom started dating, what happened was you got jealous and now you're trying to blame him for mom's death and my being kidnapped." Bella snapped glaring at Charlie.
"Okay so now's not a good time to talk about this, why don't you go do your homework or something. I need to get to bed; I've got to be at the station early tomorrow." Charlie said setting his dishes in the sink.
"Sure whatever," Bella said leaving for her room without as much as a good night.
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"Hey Bella, I thought you might like a lift today," Rosalie said as Bella came to stand beside her convertible that was currently parked in Charlie's driveway.
"Sure, where's everyone else?" Bella asked as she climbed into the passenger seat.
"Already at school, they rode with Edward but I wanted to come get you so I thought I'd bring my baby to school." Rosalie said smiling at the other girl.
"I see," Bella said not really contributing much to the conversation.
"What's wrong Bella?"
"I'm having some trouble adjusting to Charlie, he warned me about hanging out with Emmett because he's so much bigger than me and because he's a senior."
"But you're a senior too," Rosalie said confused.
"He assumed I was going to make up my junior year so we could spend more time together since as he put it Phil stole me and my mom from him. He isn't ready to let me go yet." Bella said bitterly.
"Who's Phil?" Rosalie asked confused.
"My dad."
"Ah how are things with the Chief?" Emmett asked opening Rosalie's door for her as Edward pulled open Bella's.
"Charlie is a bitch that doesn't know the first thing about life." Bella growled.
"Harsh words towards ones father." Edward said quietly.
"I don't really consider Charlie my father. I know he is by blood but for all intents and purposes Phil was my real dad, even before he and my mom got married. It's not that I don't like Charlie well enough it's just that he doesn't understand me. He and my mom split up when I was a baby and I used to come visit him every summer, and it was great, I really truly loved him back then, but as I got older and my mom started seeing guys and Charlie still kept their old wedding picture up in the living room at his house it got kind of awkward. I began to realize that he was still hung up on my mom and wasn't convinced that they were broken up when they were. I eventually stopped coming altogether and only talked to him when he bothered to call; a year after I stopped coming to Forks, so when I was probably thirteen, my mom met Phil. He was awesome; he was a minor league baseball player and brought me these really cool knick knacks back whenever he had to travel. He absolutely adored my mom and me, and we adored him right back. They got married when I was fifteen and then the whole Maria fiasco happened when I was sixteen." Bella explained.
"Oh Bella," Rosalie said launching herself at the smaller girl with enough force had it been anyone other than Bella they would have toppled strait to the ground.
"Then last night Charlie started going off about how Phil stole mom and I away from him and how I couldn't imagine what it was like for him when they turned up dead and I was missing. He wasn't very happy when I pointed out I stopped visiting him before my parents even met and even less happy when I said he was jealous of Phil and was using it as an excuse to blame my mom's death and my disappearance on him."
"Oh Bella," Rosalie said hugging her tighter. At this point the four of them were standing outside hers and Emmett's first hour class.
"Its fine, he'll get over the fact that I'm going to be gone in a year and he won't have Phil to blame for my not speaking to him ever again this time around. Look Rose, I need out of Forks for a while sometime soon, we should head up to Seattle or something this weekend because if Charlie's still the same man he was when I was a kid then he's going fishing with Billy Black in La Push on Saturday."
"Okay, the four of us can go, as long as Edward wants too that is. You and Alice don't seem to get along too well yet so she doesn't need to come and she won't want Jasper going shopping without her and Esme and Carlisle left for the weekend so it'll be just us left, we can go tomorrow or later tonight if you want."
"Sounds good to me, you guys should probably get to class before you're late. We'll see you at lunch later." Bella said giving a small smile before dragging Emmett into the classroom in front of them.
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By the time they made it to lunch Bella was completely pissed off. Apparently word had gotten out that her team had won in football yesterday but not the fact that she had actually played. The entire school was talking about how unfair it was that she could just sit around while everyone else in the class actually worked. Just because she didn't work up a sweat didn't mean she didn't play, Emmett hadn't worked up a sweat but nobody had accused him of not playing! God she hated being small sometimes, it got really annoying having people doubt her abilities all the time.
"Hey Swan! Did you really cheat in gym, the easiest class in the entire school?" Some jerk called after her as she and Emmett passed.
That was the last straw for her. She spun on her heals to face the person that had spoken and ground out between clenched teeth, "I did not cheat in gym, I led my team to victory. I have never cheated on anything in my life and I don't intend to start anytime soon. I don't know why everyone seems to think that I didn't play in that football game yesterday but I did. If you don't believe me you can go ahead and ask Jason Phelps he was my team captain and he'll tell you I played the entire time and scored pretty much every touchdown our team got."
"Yeah of course you did pip squeak," the boy said snorting as he looked her up and down. "Look why don't you stick to girl sports, yeah? Wouldn't want a pretty little thing like you to get damaged playing big boy sports when you should be waiting on the sidelines of games for one of us to ask you to a movie or something."
"You shouldn't have said that," Emmett said quietly to the guy as Bella's eyes flared with pent up fury.
"How dare you!" Bella yelled, "I'll have you know that just because I look good does not give any one of you fucking pricks to treat me the way you have so far. I'm a person not a piece of meat or a toy you can make do whatever you want! I have opinions and talents and things on my mind other than which boy is cuter and who I want to take me out next Friday."
"Awe come on honey, we just want somebody as beautiful as you out of harm's way." The boy said sliding his hand up and down her arm in an attempt to sooth her.
"Fuck off asshole!" Bella said dangerously punching the guy in the face before heading into the lunch room while Emmett stayed back to admire her handy work. Unlike most vampires she had hit him with enough force to break his nose but didn't cause more damage than any human wouldn't be able to do.
"Told you that was a bad idea," Emmett said smirking before he turned to fallow the small girl to where the rest of his family was sitting minus Alice who couldn't seem to pull her head out of her ass.
They were all sitting at the table snickering as Bella glowered at everyone that dared look in her direction. "Bella dear, that wasn't very nice." Emmett said sweetly.
"I don't give a fuck if it was nice, I'm tired of all the dip shits at this school telling me what I should and shouldn't do! They aren't my father, my father died two years ago." Bella growled.
"Calm down Bella! This will all blow over within a couple of days; you're new and new don't make it to Forks very often. As soon as they get used to you everything will be back to normal." Jasper said soothingly as the girl continued to sulk.
"Yeah whatever," Bella muttered before smirking and standing on top of their lunch table and addressing the entire student body. "Attention Forks High School! My name is Isabella Swan and I want you all to know that I am not some sort of freak show for you to talk about all the time so you best shut the hell up about me…oh and fish are friends not food."
Everyone present just stared at her in shock and confusion as she jumped down off of the table. She snorted as she took in all of their faces glad that they at least weren't talking about her.
"Fish are friends not food?" Emmett asked confused as Jasper snickered and Rosalie smirked.
"Seriously Emmett, has nobody ever seen Finding Nemo? It's only the best moobie ever!" Bella said exasperatedly.
"Moobie," Jasper asked letting out a bark of laughter startling everyone in the vicinity.
"Did I stutter little white boy?" Bella asked raising an eyebrow.
That was all it took for the Cullen's minus Alice to burst into loud laughter. Alice huffed and stomped away from the table glaring at Jasper as she left. Bella rolled her eyes at the pixie and dropped into Rosalie's lap laying her head on the blonde's shoulder and pretending to sob as the other vampire left.
"Oh Rose! I didn't mean for Alice to get upset, I just can't do right by her! I wasn't trying to call Jasper a little white boy!" Bella cried fighting the smile tugging at her lips as Rosalie played along.
"I know Bella, don't worry she'll see you're only trying to be funny eventually, and the rest of us love you don't we Jasper?" Rosalie said shoving Bella onto his lap.
"Yeah of course," Jasper said wrapping his arms around Bella automatically so she wouldn't be shoved on the floor by his pushy sister.
"Oh would you look at that, time for me to skip the last of my classes!" Bella said as the bell rang signaling lunch was over.
"Oh me too, me too!" Emmett said bouncing up and down as he gave Rosalie a puppy dog look.
"Oh fine, we can start our trip now but don't say I never do anything for you!" Rosalie said rolling her eyes at her husband's antics.
"Screw what Alice might want I'm coming with," Jasper said resolutely as they walked to the parking lot.
"Thanks Jasper," I said grinning up at him.
"So Bella what was your dad like?" Jasper asked as they all piled into Rosalie's car leaving the Volvo for Alice to drive after she finished with class.
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