Today's Quote:
The Divorce Rate amongst my socks is astonishing.
Important A/N at the end.
"You look well-rested," Dad commented as I sat down next to him at the table. I swallowed a mouthful of porridge before answering.
I pointed my spoon up in the direction of Bella's room and rolled my eyes. "It's a lot easier to sleep without Bella screaming," I said.
"Preaching to the choir, kiddo," he said. "I just hope it lasts."
"Agreed. Whatever she's snorting is my new favourite thing."
Dad stared at me, his fork slipping out of his hand. "She's on drugs?"
I forced back a smile at his extreme shock. I may have forgotten I was talking with the Police Chief.
"Kidding," I said quickly, holding up my hands in surrender. "Sorry."
"Not funny," he growled, though the corners of his lips turned up slightly.
"Sure it wasn't," I said, making Dad shake his head.
"What am I supposed to do with you?" he asked rhetorically.
"Love me and spoil me and finally admit I'm your favourite daughter?"
"You wish."
Bella walked down the stairs at that moment, and we launched into a conversation about school.
I was planning to sit alone at lunch, but Angela called me over to her table, and, well, I did like the girl, so I wasn't exactly about to break her heart.
"Hey Boo," I said, sitting down. "What's crackalackin?"
"Crackalackin?" she asked, eyeing me carefully. "Did the hair dye finally get to your brain?"
"Ooh, kitty's got claws," I joked.
"Meow," Angela said playfully.
"Where's Ben today?" Lauren said suddenly, asking Angela. I cursed under my breath - god I hated that girl.
"Ben's got the stomach flu," Angela said in her quiet, calm voice. "Hopefully it's just some twenty-four-hour thing. He was really sick last night."
"What did you two do this weekend?" Jessica asked, not sounding as if she cared about the answer. I'd bet that this was just an opener so she could tell her own stories. I wondered if she would talk about Port Angeles, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Bella bristle.
"We were going to have a picnic Saturday, actually, but… we changed our minds," Angela said. There was an edge to her voice that caught my interest. Jess, not so much.
"That's too bad," she said, about to launch into her story.
"What happened?" I asked curiously.
"Well," Angela said, seeming more hesitant than usual, "we drove up north, almost to the hot springs—there's a good spot just about a mile up the trail. But, when we were halfway there… we saw something."
"Saw something? What?" Lauren asked, her voice rising an octave.
"I don't know," Angela said. "We think it was a bear. It was black, anyway, but it seemed… too big."
Lauren snorted. "Oh, not you, too!" Her eyes turned mocking, and I glared right at her.
"Oh, what would you know about bears?" I asked rudely. "Your sole three brain cells are too preoccupied with makeup and clothes to know anything useful."
Lauren gasped in outrage, and I cocked an eyebrow at her.
"What, no comeback?" I asked snidely.
"It's just, Tyler tried to sell me that one last week," she said.
"You're not going to see any bears that close to the resort," Jessica said, siding with Lauren.
"Really though," Angela protested in a low voice, looking down at the table. "We did see it."
Jessica snickered.
"No, she's right," Bella threw in impatiently. "We had a hiker in just Saturday who saw the bear, too, Angela. He said it was huge and black and just outside of town, didn't he, Mike?"
There was a moment of silence. Every pair of eyes at the table turned to stare at her in shock. Angela had her mouth hanging open like she'd just witnessed an explosion. Nobody moved.
"Mike?" Bella muttered, mortified. "Remember the guy with the bear story?"
"S-sure," Mike stuttered after a second. "Yeah, there was a guy who said he saw a huge black bear right at the trailhead—bigger than a grizzly," he confirmed.
"Hmph." Jessica turned to Lauren, her shoulders stiff, and changed the subject. "Did you hear back from USC?" she asked.
Everyone else looked away, too, except for Mike and Angela. Angela smiled at Bella tentatively, who returned the smile.
"So, what did you do this weekend, Bella?" Mike asked, curious, but oddly wary. Everyone but Lauren looked back, waiting for her response.
"Friday night, Jessica, Morgana and I went to a movie in Port Angeles. And then I spent Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday down at La Push."
The eyes flickered to Jessica, to me, and then back to Bella. Jessica looked irritated. Like, not 'kill you' irritated, but at least 'spill yogurt on you' irritated.
I wondered if she didn't want anyone to know she'd gone out with us, or whether she just wanted to be the one to tell the story.
"What movie did you see?" Mike asked, starting to smile.
"Dead End—the one with the zombies," Bella said, grinning. I hid a soft smile behind my hand, it was really nice to see her open up. Perhaps what I thought was just a fluke might actually be the annoying sister I had come to love.
"I heard that was scary. Did you think so?" Mike was eager to continue the conversation.
"Bella had to leave at the end, she was so freaked," Jessica inserted with a sly smile.
Bella nodded. "It was pretty scary."
Mike didn't stop asking Bella questions until lunch was over. Gradually, the others were able to start up their own conversations again, though they still looked at Bella a lot. I kinda felt bad for her - they were acting like she was a zoo creature.
Angela talked mostly to Bella and me, and, when I got up to dump my apple core, she followed.
"Thanks," she said in a low voice when we were away from the table.
"For what?"
"Speaking up, sticking up for me."
I rolled my eyes. "You don't have to thank me for that - I may be crazy, but I'm still a decent person. I did what anyone else would do."
"You're not crazy," Angela said quickly. "Just… special?"
I laughed. "Thanks, I think."
Angela huffed. "Oh, you know what I mean."
"I do. Now, if only you could help convince my mother that, and I'd be set."
Important A/N - So eeeeaud gave me this great idea of having Morgana potentially having a fling with Leah or Quil while Carlilse's gone. I'll put up a poll for you guys to tell me your thoughts, or you can try to convince me to do/not do in reviews. It won't happen for a bit, but the faster you guys answer, the more likely you'll be able to convince me as I won't have had as much time to decide myself.
So that was kinda a super short, uneventful, yet adorably fluffy (for Morgana) chapter. I'll (hopefully) post a longer chapter with actual plot in it in a bit, but I felt kinda bad for having not updated yet, and I dunno... It just felt like a good place to end? Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and please review! Reading reviews is like drugs - happy moods and creative thoughts. I think.
Shippergirlky - Thanks, I hope you stick around long enough to see it through :)
Hermoine - Thank you
JosieNightOwl - Don't worry, it will. And if it goes as planned, there'll be lots of drama.
DxGRAYxMAN - True. Maybe next visit? Or when she finds out the wolves? I dunno - I'll see if I can work it in, for drama at the very least.
eeeeaud - Whoa, big review. At first, I was like hella worried it'd be full of criticism, but on finding out it's not, I'm extremely pleased. It means a lot to me that you obviously spent a while crafting that. I agree - at this point, she's gone from tough cookie your grandma gives you six years after it's eat-by-date, to like... a coffee flavoured cookie?
Morgana and Quil... I hadn't considered that. First, yes my Endgame is Carlilse/Morgana happy ending. As for her attraction to Quil, I'm not sure. As you said, it'd be the perfect fling, and great revenge against Carlisle. And I love drama, so that's a bonus. Whether she'd feel like she's cheating, I think she would on some level, but at the same time, she doesn't know if she loves him or not. Maybe a fling would be the perfect way to figure that out?
Morgana/Leah is a couple I could definitely see happening, although it probably wouldn't have any real romantic feelings. And yes, I definitely agree, the wolves aren't the greatest set of characters, and I feel like they get to get away with anything by placing the blame on the wolf inside them. Decisions, decisions... Also, I hope you don't mind but I've asked for other's to give their opinions on this, since this is such a great idea.
New World Wonder - Thanks :)
lolostarkiller - God that sucks so much. Did you end up doing Christmas? Hopefully that cheered you up. Charlie will probs find out at some point, I think. And yeah, it'd definitely be pretty funny with him and Billy.
Ghostwriter71 - It's undecided. Once we get to Newborn/Volturi fights, I'll make a more definite decision on whether or not she has important powers. But as for the more control, Morgana will definitely have that, and it'll play a big part soon. And yeah, I tend to agree with Morgana (Historical Morgana) - all she wanted was to use magick!
surfingfreak - Aw, thanks so much! That's really nice to hear.
Guest - Thanks, and this time it wasn't too long a wait. Only like, a month... oops? But yeah, for reals this year I'm going to try and be more dedicated to HIB.
Brookie Twiling - IKR? I never liked him in the books. Hunger Games is amazing! Best Dystopian series by far.