I Give You Thanks For the Ride

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Bella opened her window quietly when she heard Charlie's breathing even out, the likelihood of him waking up was slim but the less noise she made the better her chances of not being caught would be. The last thing she needed was for him to wake up when she was preparing for the hunt.

Keeping her thirst at bay around humans was harder than it was around other vampires. She could do it but she needed to feed before it became too much, the last thing she needed was to attack somebody at school.

The real question though was where to hunt. She couldn't do it in Forks, somebody would notice right away that somebody was missing and there weren't any good animals that she could take out. She would have to travel and make a quick trip of it so that she was back before Charlie got up in the morning.

Huffing out an unnecessary breath Bella took off towards the north breathing deeply as soon as she passed the city limits. She could smell the Cullen's to the side of her and kept running until she couldn't smell them any longer.

Nothing smelled appetizing until she hit Port Angeles. She could smell the fear of somebody young and followed it coming to a stop in the shadows of a building in an alley. She looked on as a group of guys moved closer to a girl Bella recognized from Forks High. She was a junior and seemed nice enough even though she did hang around that Jessica girl.

"J-just l-leave me a-alone..." the girl said taking a step away from them and Bella could see the waves of fear rolling off of her.

"What's wrong honey, don't you like us?" A small fat man said as he and his group of friends kept moving towards her.

"P-please..." She begged with a choked sob.

"Leave her alone." Bella said calmly stepping out of the shadows.

The girl looked at her in shocked fear. "I-isabella..?" she said recognition shinning on her face.

"Are you alright?" Bella asked moving to the other girls side not taking her eyes away from the group of guys.

"Y-yeah.." She said nodding her eyes wide. "W-what are you doing here?"

"It looked like you could use some help with this garbage is all. Now if you walk straight down that sidewalk you'll end up back downtown," Bella said indicating the path she meant.

"W-what about you? A-aren't you coming..?" she asked staring at Bella wide eyed.

"No, you go on ahead. I think I'm going to have a little chat with these boys about manners."

"I can't just leave you..."

"I'll be fine, I know how to take care of myself now go. " Bella said calmly taking her eyes away from the group of guys to give her a hard glare.

"Thank you Isabella..." She said taking a slow step away from her before running off in the direction Bella had told her to.

"How nice of you to sacrifice yourself for your friend," The fat man said moving forward and reaching out to touch Bella.

She caught the hand easily jerking his wrist so that the bone snapped loudly, relishing the cry of pain he gave.

"If the rest of you value your lives you will leave now and forget about his encounter." Bella said calmly smirking cruelly as the other men ran off leaving their friend behind. "Looks like it's just the two of us now."

"Lemme go, I won't tell anyone I swear!" He gasped trying, futilely, to pull his arm free.

Bella ignored him and pulled him closer her eyes seeming to glow as she breathed in the scent of his fear and the underlying scent of rancor. Letting out the unnecessary air she pushed his head to the side and sank her razor sharp teeth into the pulsing vein of his neck.

He cried out flailing around trying to force her to release him but she only sucked harder stopping only when he went limp and the flow of blood stopped. Pulling back she wiped her mouth calmly and stared at the limp body being held up only by her one hand trying to decide what to do with it.

Deciding she didn't much care she simply drug him to one of the nearby buildings and shoved him into an incinerator and switched it on; taking off running before the flame could fully ignite. She was back at Charlie and in her room by the time her alarm started to go off.

She changed her clothes for the day and waited impatiently for Charlie to get up and leave for work. She hated all of this waiting, how did humans stand waiting all the time there were so many other things she could be doing but she had to wait because she had to pretend to be human.

She paced back and forth across her room feeling like a caged tiger and wanted to shout in relief when she finally heard the rustle of sheets and a thump signifying that he had gotten out of bed. A moment later he knocked lightly on her door and stuck his head in, "Bells it's time to get up..." He said deflating slightly when he saw that she was already up and dressed.

"Thanks Charlie," Bella said nodding at him and grabbing her school bag. "Rose should be here soon..."

"Alright..have a good day.." he said awkwardly before going into the bathroom to get ready.

Bella looked out the window when she heard an engine, surprised to see a motorcycle sitting outside instead of Rosalie's car. Jasper pulled off his helmet and grinned up at her. She grinned back and bounded down the steps, noisily for Charlie's sake.

"Good morning Ms. Bella." Jasper drawled as he grinned at her and held out his helmet for her to take.

"And to you kind sir," She said taking the proffered helmet and smiling back, her teeth glinting in the morning light.

"You are looking might bright this morning, did you have a nice breakfast to start off you're day?" he asked as she got on and he began backing down the drive.

"Nope, just a late dinner last night."

He nodded in understanding swerving into the student parking lot. He sped past a group of students throwing licorice at each other and came to a stop in the spot next to Edward's silver Volvo.

"I give you thanks for the ride," Bella said grinning up at him as he pulled the helmet off for her.

"Anything for the lovely lady," he murmured staring down into her bright red eyes; not looking away until the warning bell rang out across the school yard.

The blonde boy grasped Bella's hand and pressed a light kiss to the back of it before taking off for his first class in long strides. Bella smiled slightly and went to class wanting nothing more than to go after Jasper.

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