Ch. 4 My Sweet Bella

Nothing eventful happened after I got scolded for throwing Ms. Newton's favorite clock out the window. Luckily, it landed on grass. I spent the rest of the week lounging around and Ms. Newton was very worried. She thought I should be running around with friends. The problem was I have no friends. I had not met a single person except for the librarian. The only good thing about this place was that the library was better than the London Library back home. That surprised me greatly when I first visited it. I missed Melissa and I hadn't been able to talk to her. The funny thing about Melissa is that she never answers her phone. I wanted to email her but the only computer in the house was Mike's broken down one, and he has password on that. Wait a minute! I wonder if Mike has a cell phone. I asked and he did. What is his number? 813-2022. I called.

"Hello?"

"Hi, is this Mike?"

"Ummm yeah. And you are…?"
"Amanda, I was wondering, what is the password to your computer?"

"Why?"

"Because I want to email my friend."

"Oh, well, I don't use it any more. The password is 'my sweet Bella.'"

Oooh, I think Mike has a crush.

"Who's Bella?"

"Just someone I know, knew."

"Knew?"

"Well after she married that cabbage head she disappeared."

Now I was interested.

"Disappeared?"

"Well after she married it," he spat that last part, "She never contacted us again."

"Us?"

"Her friends, she told us she was going to Dartmouth and never talked to us again she never talked to us because of that scoundrel." Wow. He must really hate that guy.

"Who is that guy your talking about?"

"Edward Cullen, he was a vicious person but for some reason Bella didn't realize that. And then she went and married him at eighteen! And then there was that Jacob guy. He's so full of himself, walking around without his shirt on showing off his muscles. He and Cullen were always fighting over her. She would have been happier with me."

I had a feeling I knew what was going on here. I had a feeling that Mike liked Bella… and it defiantly sounded like she didn't like him. Yikes, poor Bella, with Mike running after her all the time. I wondered what Edward was really like because I doubted he was as awful as Mike made him seem.

"Okay Mike, thanks!" I hung up not wanting to hear Mike ranting about how horrible Edward was. I set the phone down and walked to the computer. I turned it on typed in 'Bella' and opened my email up. I checked it. Spam. Melissa. Melissa. Melissa. Yahoo. Melissa. Spam. Spam. Melissa. Melissa. Melissa. I deleted the spam and yahoo and opened the first Melissa.

hey amanda wats up

I opened the next one.

amanda hows forks

Next one.

amanda why haven't u emailed me

They were all like that growing more frantic. I emailed back.

its ok i just hav been busy hows life

I got up and walked out side. I wanted fresh air. Tomorrow was school. Fun. I sighed and walked into the forest not far from Ms. Newton's. I hiked into the forest, found a small clearing, and flopped on the ground and stared at the clouds. I was watching them float by. I felt like I was in a dream and I lost track of time. I was totally lost in my thoughts and was oblivious to my surroundings. That seemed to happen to me a lot. I laid there until plunk, a big fat raindrop landed on my forehead. And then plunk plunk. I sighed unwilling to get up. Plunk, plunk, plunk. And then I was soaked. I groaned and sat up. I was already drenched so there was no need to hurry. I strolled over to Ms. Newton's. To my house. It was my house now.

I thought about how Melissa and I would always enjoy the occasional rain. We would run out of the house and prance around and dance in the rain. I remembered how once Melissa and I were going to have a picnic in her back yard and it started raining. Our sandwiches got soaked and Melissa ate her's anyway. I thought it was gross but that was typical Melissa. She would eat anything. Food she didn't like. Even random skittles she found on the floor. I remembered when I had opened my Dr. Pepper and it exploded all over my lunch. My chocolate muffin was soaked and so was my sandwich. I had eaten everything else. Melissa just grabbed my muffin and ate it. I asked her if she was crazy and she said it tasted perfectly fine. I sighed. I missed Melissa. Maybe I would ask her to visit soon. Ms. Newton stared at me when I walked in the house. I ignored her and walked up to my bedroom to dry and get changed. I was sadly in need of a better wardrobe. I pulled out my pajamas and crawled in bed and fell asleep. The lack of dinner made me starving the next day.

I woke up to my stomach growling. I looked at my clock and tried to go back to sleep once I saw the time. 5:30 was too early to get up. I didn't succeed. Finally after lying there about ten minutes I got up. I went down stairs and had two and a half bowls of cheerios with honey. Then I brushed my hair for about 45 minutes until Ms. Newton woke up, then I got dressed. After this I had nothing to do. I read the newspaper for something to do.

After I had decided that there was absolutely nothing interesting the paper I got up to look at the clock on the stove in the kitchen. It late enough for me to drive to school. I would still arrive incredibly early but I would go insane if I had nothing to do.

I realized I would have to walk to get to school. I sighed, grabbed the rain jacket Ms. Newton had bought me, and opened the door. A gust of cold wind rushed in the house. How can it be so cold in the middle of September? I was freezing as I walked down the streets. My toes were going numb and my nose felt like it was made of ice. I swear there were little icicles hanging on my ears. I found myself longing for the immense heat of back home. I thought I liked the cold. It didn't take me long to find the school even though I hadn't known where it was. The school was small. It was made up of a couple of brick buildings. What surprised me was that the school had no fence. Anyone could just walk away whenever they wanted to. I made my way to the nearest building.

It was a relief to walk inside the building labeled office. My ears started defrosting. I walked over to a woman with red hair sitting behind a desk.

"Um, hello. I'm Amanda Shepard."

"Oh, Amanda. I'm sorry about your parents. It must be horrible for you. Do you like it here in Forks?"

How did she know about my parents?

"Yeah, it's okay."

"I'm glad you like it here. I do hope you'll be happy in Forks. Here," she handed me a paper, "Have all your teachers sign this, and I have your schedule somewhere. She bustled around for a minute.

"Excuse me for a second," she left through a door behind her desk.

I took the opportunity to look around. Her desk had many papers on it and behind the desk there were filing cabinets and a door. On the wall there was a painting of a tree. I couldn't read the signature. The carpet was the bad kind, scratchy and stiff, and was a dull grey. The lady walked back in. She handed me my schedule and a map of the school. She went over my classes with me, and the best route to all of them. I thanked her and walked outside. I sat under a tree, which there were plenty of, until people started arriving. A tall girl walked over to me. She had brown hair and bright blue eyes.

"Hi I'm Elizabeth but most people call me Liz. Are you Amanda?"

I grunted in reply.

"It's horrible what happened to your parents. I'm really sorry."

She knew too? How did she know? It's not like I have a big sign over my head saying, "I'm Amanda Shepard and my parents died in a car crash last week." I sighed. I wasn't in the mood to talk. I hadn't been in the mood to talk since…

"Yeah," I said just to say something.

"What class do you have next?"

"English."

"Oh. I have biology."

I was glad we didn't have the same class. Maybe now I could be alone.

"Hi," a girl walked up to me.

Or maybe not.

"Hi."

"Are you Amanda Shepard? It must be horrible for you. Your parents dieing in a car crash, then you having to move out here. Do you like it over here? There aren't very many shops but my friends and I like to drive out to Port Angeles or Seattle or Olympia."

Geez she talked a lot.

"Maybe we can go shopping some time, or we could have a sleepover. I would love that. Do you have English? I have English."

She just kept on talking and didn't wait for my reply. I tuned her out but she didn't notice. She just talked and talked and talked. We entered building three. I walked over to the teacher.

"Hi. I'm Amanda Shepard. Your suppose to sign this slip."

He signed 'Mr. Mason,' handed the slip back to me, and directed me to my seat. Next to the girl who never stopped talking. Oh, great. She babbled on during class and I didn't hear a word Mr. Mason said. But I did hear from behind me, "She doesn't talk much does she."

"No she doesn't"

They talked like I couldn't hear them.

"But she's good looking."

"Bet you ten bucks I can get her to ask me on a date first."

"Like she'd ask you on a date."

I sighed and laid my head on the desk. I had only been here a week and I already hated Forks. The girl was still talking. Eventually, I found out her name, Melanie Sorin. The next class Biology was exactly the same. Yes, Melanie was in that class too. With a school this small it wasn't that much of a coincidence. In Algebra II Melanie wasn't there so I just laid my head down and dozed. During lunch I sat with Melanie and her friends. By the end of the day I had successfully did no work and learned nothing. I was about to trudge home when Melanie grabbed my arm.

"Do you want to go to the party at La Push?"

"What?"

"The party at La Push. Do you want to go?"

"Melissa, I mean Melanie, I…"

"Yay! I knew you'd come. I'll pick you up on Friday at six," and she bounced away.

Okay. I guess I'm going to a party. Where is La Push anyway? I shook my head and trudged on.