I stayed in the meadow after he left for at least an hour. Not wanting to risk bumping into him again somewhere else in the forest. The entire situation was so, bizarre. I had to wonder, was he not talking because he was waiting for me to talk? Or just because of his apparent utter dislike for me. Either way, there was no way that I was going to speak first. No way at all.
The house was silent when I returned, Charlie no where in sight. I grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen before disappearing upstairs. The boy's weird behavior was stuck in my mind. I couldn't seem to move past it, unable to remember the last time I had been treated with such hatred. The fire of our first meeting stood at direct odds with the latest one. After all, if he hated me with such passion, how did he stand under that tree beside me for so long?
The memory of it made me feel small. I folded in on myself, shoulders slouched. Worthless.
It didn't help that the room I returned to looked nothing like the one I had left this morning.
Charlie had been busy in my absence. There were fresh sheets on the bed. The desk and nightstand were clean and no longer cluttered with glasses, plates and napkins. The window and curtains were both wide open. Most jarringly, the suitcase that I had never unpacked, and had formed the base of my clothing pile since I arrived in Forks over a month ago was no longer in its place.
Of everything, the suitcase bothered me the most. Sure, I had left it because the act of unpacking it seemed like too much effort. But having it finally emptied and tidied away in the top of my closet seemed to mark my move to Forks as permanent. I wouldn't be leaving any time soon.
I closed the curtains after setting my glass down on the nightstand. The sudden cleanliness and brightness of my bedroom was a little too much to bear. Sighing, I curled up into a ball on top of the fresh sheets, not wanting to crumple them after Charlie had gone to so much trouble, changing them. I lay there, drifting between sleep and alertness for a while, until I heard the sound of Charlie's car pulling into the driveway and sat upright, waiting for him to come inside.
I wanted to thank him, I suppose. Awkward as it would be. Like a coward, I lingered on the stairs as I heard him moving things about in the kitchen. This is stupid Bella, just go in the kitchen. I did as I had told myself.
"Evening Bells, feeling better?" He asked, as he pulled takeout boxes out of a bag.
"Yeah, errr, thanks." The gratitude sounded strange coming from my throat, but Charlie didn't seem to either notice or care. He placed a variety of containers on the table.
"You hungry?" He asked with an expectant face. "I wasn't sure what you would like, so I got a few different things."
A few was a gross under estimation. There were at least eight containers on the table, not including the rice. I lowered myself into a chair as Charlie set a plate down in front of me.
"Tuck in Bella, don't let it get cold."
"Uh-huh." I didn't know where to start.
Chinese food used to be my all time favorite thing. I used to beg to eat it whenever I was given the option to chose my food as a kid. But that was a long time ago. I couldn't recall the last time I had eaten Chinese takeout. I had been denying myself such luxuries for a long, long time.
I picked up the steamed rice and spooned some onto my plate. It was a good enough start.
Charlie look a seat across from me and began filling his plate in earnest. I followed his lead, reaching for the container of braised mixed vegetables. It looked the least greasy of the options, the least decadent. I could manage eating some, I hoped.
We ate in silence. The only real sounds were Charlie's loud chewing and the gentle scrap of my fork as I shifted my food around on the plate.
"So, school starts up petty soon." Charlie said in between bites of chow mien.
"Uh huh." I mumbled in to my plate, not sure where he was going with this.
"I meant to tell you sooner, but because of all the school you missed last year, they want to have a meeting with us this week to discuss how they can help you graduate on time."
Suddenly the motive for the feast was clear.
"W-w-what day to try want to meet us?" Please don't say tomorrow.
"Tuesday." Phew.
"Do I have to go? Cant they just meet with you?" My heart began pouring rapidly in my chest. I'd been called into 'meetings' so many times back in Arizona. Always under the guise of helping me succeed. Always with the true intention of setting me up to fail.
"Sorry Bells, but they said its very important that you been there to agree to the plan they come up with. The graduation requirements are a little different here in Washington, they want to make sure that you can graduate on time, if that is something you want.
Graduate on time. I huffed. Like that will ever happen now.
I had once dreamed of going off to college. Getting a degree. Being a artist or a writer or something cool. Right now I knew that I would never, ever be able to do that. I probably wouldn't even graduate. I was useless.
"Its nothing to stress about Bella. Not at all. Just a chat about what you want to get out of high school and how the school can help you. The last thing you need to do is stress about it."
What is it with adults and telling you not to stress about stressful things? I doesn't magically make the stress go away.
Charlie could definitely sense my anguish.
"Look, you don't need to worry about it now. Why don't you go get ready for bed? I'll clean up here. We'll talk about it more on Tuesday morning. Not now."
I left the kitchen without another word.

I spent the night tossing and turning. Overthinking every little detail of what was to come and imagining the absolute worst. By 4am, I was considering going for a walk, but I quickly scrapped that idea, for Charlie's sake. I doubt he'd be too happy to wake up and discover me missing.
Instead, I sat on the cold hard floor of my bedroom and started making paper airplanes with a stack of coloured paper I found in one of the drawers. Left-over from my childhood no doubt. Did Charlie ever throw anything out?
I must've folded about thirty of them before I realized how wasteful it was, folding so much paper up into useless shapes. I gathered them all up, crumpling them with my hands and tossing them into my waste paper bin. I couldn't even pretend that it had made me feel any better.
I crawled back onto the bed and lay in a ball on top of the blankets. Hugging my knees tight to my chest.
At some point I must have succumbed to sleep. I woke up with a streak of afternoon sun shining directly into my eyes. I was still curled up on top of the bedsheets. I stretched as I sat up, my neck and back sore from my unorthodox sleeping position.
The house was empty again. Charlie had been going out a lot more recently, than he was when I first got here. Perhaps he was recovered from whatever had been keeping him out of work. Though I dare not ask him. That might be a little strange.
I drank three large glasses of water in quick succession. So quick in fact that some of the liquid spilled out of the side of the glass as I attempted to gulp it down as fast as I could. My mouth felt like it was full of cotton, it was so dry.
I spent the day in my room. As was apparently typical for me in summer. I didn't feel like braving a chance meeting with the neighbour in the woods. Instead I spent the day digging through my desk and the bookshelf, pulling out stuff that was broken or too childish or just random junk. There was more there than I had anticipated, I had to go down and grab a few trash bags to sort the stuff. I threw what I could in a bag to take to goodwill. Mostly children book and puzzles and a couple of plastic toys that were in relatively good shape in spite of their age. I left this bag in the garage before taking two more out to the trash cans round the side of the house.
It was a busy day by my accounts. I ate a meal of slightly burnt toast and an apple before showering and heading off to bed. All before Charlie returned home from wherever he had been.
Sleep didn't avert me tonight as it had the previous evening. The exertions of the day, along with the poor sleep I had had the night before meant that I was out like the a light the second my head touched the pillow. I didn't even have the energy to dream.

I woke up to Charlie knocking on my bedroom door.
"Time to get up Bella. We have to be at the school in two hours, and breakfast is on the table."
Rubbing my eyes, I suppressed a yawn before mumbling in reply.
"Sure Dad. I'll be down in a second."
I lay in bed for at least ten minutes, adjusting to being awake before heading down for breakfast.
On the table, plate of toast waited for me. I sat and ate a few slow bites, although it was cold and thoroughly over-buttered. I forced myself to swallow the unappealing breakfast, chasing it with a cool glass of water from the tap.
I rinsed my plate and glass in the sink and left them on the rack to dry. The sound of the rain outside drifted in on the window through the half opened window.
I went back to my bedroom. Sitting on my bed, I stared at the wall. The prospect of the meeting loomed heavy on my mind. I absolutely did not want to go, but at the same time I categorically could not see anyway out of it.
So I did what I always did. What my stupid messed up mind did when it was panicked or stressed out. I just sat in my room and did nothing. Not that it would help anyway.

Charlie's voice sounded from somewhere outside me door. Starling me from my nothing-ness.
"Bella, hurry up and get dressed. We need to be out the door in ten minutes."
"Su-sure Dad. I'll be down in a minute." I replied. Standing up sharply and forcing the blood to run to my head, throwing off my balance. I reached out for the handle of the closet to steady myself.
"Get it together Bella." I told myself, though I could not be sure that I was listening.
Charlie was waiting by the door, his foot lightly tapping with mild annoyance when I finally made it downstairs.
"Come on Bells, lets get going before we are late." He opened the front door and stepped out. I followed.
We rode to the school in an uneasy silence. I was my first time seeing this part of town since I was a kid. I spent the journey gazing out of the window at the unfamiliar scenery. It helped that I could also avoid Charlie's gaze.

The school was an unassuming collection of russet-brown buildings, none of them had a second floor. It made my old school back in Phoenix look comically oversized. Hell, I don't think my grade would fit inside Forks high. At first, I questioned the thought process behind building a school as a collection of unattached buildings in such a rainy place. But then it occurred to me, high school is supposed to make kids miserable. Building Forks high in this way simply ensures it.
I followed a few paces behind Charlie as we walked to the administration building. A fine layer of rain settled on my sweater and in my hair, but I didn't quicken my pace.
Inside, the office was surprisingly busy for such a small school that was still on summer break. A rather plump lady with a port wine mark on her right cheek noticed Charlie before we even reached the desk.
"I'll let them know you've arrived Chief." She told him before turning and walking toward a door at the back of the office.
Charlie motioned to me to sit down on one of the ancient-looking armchairs that were arranged in pairs in the waiting area. I lowered myself gingerly onto one, glad that I wasn't wearing shorts. The mud-colored material irritated my hands slightly, I could not imagine how it would feel against my legs.
Fortunately, but also unfortunately, we weren't kept waiting for long.
An amazonian brunette appeared out of a door on the opposite side of the room and walked toward us.
"Charlie, Isabella, welcome." She smiled as she addressed us. "Follow me, the others are in the room waiting."
I did as I was told.

I could practically feel my heart beating in my throat as I followed behind Charlie and the strange woman. My palms were sweating profusely. I wiped them nervously on the bottom on my sweater before drawing my hands back into the sleeves, hiding them away.
We were herded into a small room. Far too small to be a classroom, for it contained only one large table surrounded by 6 chairs and a whiteboard on one of the walls. Two men sat waiting for us, both in nondescript business attire. They did not smile with their eyes as the woman had, both flashed the briefest of smiles and nodded in our direction as we sat at the table. The woman closing the door behind us before taking her own seat.
"Chief Swan, Isabella. Good to meet you." The elder of the men spoke first. "I am Principal Greene, welcome to Forks High. This is Mr Banner, the Head of the Senior Class, and Ms Kay, our Academic Support teacher."
They smiled at me when Principal Greene spoke their names and, awkwardly,I nodded back.
"Good of you to have us." Charlie spoke on our behalf. I was very glad he was here. We hadn't even started discussing things yet and I was already chewing furiously on my bottom lip.
"Shall we begin?" No one disputed, so Principal Greene continued. "Now Isabella, we are head today to discuss the conditions of your enrolment here at Forks High. If there is anything you wish to say or ask at any time during this meeting, just speak up, ok?"
"Huh." I squeaked, but it seemed to count as a legitimate answer. Charlie gave me an encouraging look, but I couldn't quite meet his gaze.
"Now Isabella, I can see here from your record that you were supposed to be graduating next summer, but that due to your absences during your junior year, your former school felt that you were not on track to meet that deadline. What we are here to figure out today is whether you feel that your original graduation goal is achievable, and if so, how we can help you achieve that."
I stared blankly at Principal Greene, trying to take in everything he was telling me. Repeating a grade, graduating a year behind everyone else was something I really, truly did not want to do. Like, not at all. But telling that to this room full of adult strangers was daunting to say the least.
"What is it Bells?" Charlie asked me.
"I-I-I really don't want to repeat the grade." My voice came out as little more than a cracked whisper.
"No? Okay." Principal Greene scribbled something into his notes. "We can certainly facilitate that. The requirements for graduation are a little different here in Washington compared with Arizona. And it will take some commitment from you. You wont be able to skip school like you were last semester, regardless of your health concerns. Do you think you can do that, Isabella?"
I nodded furiously. I would do anything so as not to be a second year junior.
"Well, alright then. Ms Kay and Mr Banner will work on a curriculum for you to follow. Typically we require gym all four years here, but I can see that your old school only required a year of gym for graduation, and, in light of the limited time you will have to catch up, I'm more than willing to waive the gym requirement for you."
I was astounded at how lenient they were being. Its not like I deserved it, I had skipped almost two months of school, and they had no reason to trust that I wouldn't continue my previous pattern of behavior.
"Now Chief, Isabella, if you're both happy to proceed down this route, I'll just get you to sign this." He pulled two copies of a document from a pile of papers in front of him. "It is your academic commitment contract. One copy is for your records, and one for us. If you're happy to, I'll get you to sign both. It simply states that you have agreed to the academic action plan we have discussed in this meeting. And that you will stick to the rules and parameters we have marked."
"It sounds just peachy Principal Greene, doesn't it Bella?"
"Sure." I muttered.
"Perfect, so Charlie you sign on the parent line, Bella you sign as the student, and then we will sign as representatives of the school."
I signed the documents where instructed and handed the pen to Charlie. Sitting on my hands while he did so.
"Well, I think we're all done here. If you're happy, of course, Charlie. Isabella, we will see you on Monday."
"Yeah, all good." Charlie grunted as he rose from his seat. "Thank you for meeting with us."
"It is no problem at all. Enjoy the rest of your summer."
We shuffled out of the school without me really noticing anything. Truth be told, I was way too freaked out by the friendly, overly-accommodating meeting. It was very obvious to me that I was being set up to fail. Signing that document, I had basically agreed that I would be forced to drop put if I fell behind, right? That's how I understood it anyway.
Needless to say, I really was not looking forward to Monday.

AN

Hi Everyone,

I'm back with another chapter! Again since losing my original notes, the story has changed a little bit, but I'm feeling much better about that now. I'll be updating as soon as I can. I know this is a very Bella-heavy fic right now. But thats about to change, she's starting school real soon!

Stick around, and let me know what you think.

Byeeeeeeeee,
Liv