17 Years Later

"Mom, hurry up, were gonna miss our flight." I shouted up the stairs of our house.

"I am. Honey, why don't you and your Dad go wait in the car, I'll only be a moment."

I sighed and stepped out of my house, into the Jacksonville sunshine, for the last time until fall. My Dad, former played turned coach of the Suns, was coaching almost 2 months of away games, all over the country. My mom had decided we might as well make a vacation out of it. For us there would be no baseball involved, thank god.

We were going to Seattle first, a few days early. Mom really wants to go see Bella's grave. Bella was my half-sister, from what I've seen she looked a lot like my mom. She died before I was born, it was just after she had got married. Her and her husband were killed in a car crash. Mom's still pretty messed up about it. She cries continually for hours every September 13th, then feels compelled to tell me everything she possibly can about Bella. I mean- no offence to my mom but I get sick of hearing it, once your dead your dead, it doesn't even make me sad that I had a sister. I never knew the girl; if my mom knew how I felt about this she'd probably throw me out.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by my parents putting the last of the suitcases into the trunk, before they both slowly climbed into the front seats. I silently sighed. Mom wasn't getting any younger, neither was Dad but he didn't look old enough to be one of my grandparents, yet. All to soon we were speeding away from my neighbourhood, from my home, my friends, from the heat and humidity I loved so much. It was going to be a long summer.

Fortunately- despite our late start - we arrived at the airport with 20 minutes to spare. I decided to use the time to buy myself some dinner, to spare me from having to eat the food they give you on planes, the stuff always smells the same, horrible. I made my way to the Burger King that was right next to our gate, I love Burger King, my parents usually don't let me get it but today they had no choice, Dad couldn't force health foods on me if there weren't any near by. Decided to get a whopper, not because I was hugely hungry but because I knew how tempted my dad would be if I sat there and ate it in front of him. He has this 'healthy eating' thing going on with the team he coaches, but they would let him just force it upon them, they're making him join in too. Watching dad sit there trying to eat salad is hilarious, he hates them. I know for a fact he sneaks downstairs at like 2 in the morning and gets himself cake or chocolate. If he didn't he'd be thinner right now.

I sat there eating my whopper really slowly until I could see sweat dripping off dads forehead as tried to resist taking the burger off me. What made it worse- for dad- was the fact that our flight was called before I was even half way through it. I swear he shed a tear as I threw it into the bin. We turned out to be on one of those planes with rows of three, so I would have to sit by my parents. They- in keeping with their embarrassing tradition of treating me like a 5 year old- immediately gave me the window seat. They really know how to make a teenage girl happy. I fell asleep about an hour into the flight.

When I woke up we were still in the air, Dad was snoring in the seat next to me while mom was sitting watching whatever crappy movie they were showing today. I smiled at her as I sat fiddling with my ipod, trying to find a song I actually wanted to listen to. What was the point in having 1000's of songs if you didn't want to listen to any of them. In the end I gave up, putting my ipod onto shuffle. I sat gazing absent-mindedly out of the window. At the moment the sky was a perfect blue, but we were beginning to creep slowly toward the layer of thick, grey clouds that lay beneath us.

All too soon the flight was over. We left the peaceful hum of the plane for the manic chaos of the airport terminal. I sighed this was not what you wanted to hear when your body thought it was the middle of the night. Naturally, our bags took the longest to drag themselves around the stupid conveyer belt- by the time we left the airport after my dad had secured us a rental I was dead on my feet. I didn't even notice what kind of car we had, I just got in the back of it.

My memories of arriving at the hotel and getting to our room were hazy, the next thing I remembered was my mother shaking me awake.

"Marie honey, time to wake up or you'll miss breakfast." she was saying rather quietly- if she hadn't have said the world breakfast I wouldn't have heard her, im a sucker for breakfast in the morning. I slowly pulled myself out of bed, it felt way to early to be waking up but I knew mom and dad wanted to hit the road as soon as possible.

"Morning Mom." I mumbled incoherently as I rubbed my eyes, and then began my morning ritual of stretching. When I was done, I made my way slowly over to the corner where I had carelessly thrown my bag the night before. I opened it and grabbed a pile of clothing, I what I was wearing wouldn't matter much, I was going to be spending most if not all of the day in the car.

When I was done I shoved my wash bag and Pjs into my bag, and then went into my parents 'room' to tell them I was good to go. They were both sitting at the end of the bed, holding hands and gazing into each others eyes in such an intimate way that I could not possibly look at them. They shouldn't do this anymore, mom's what, nearly 60, eww. I looked at the floor as I told them I was ready.

Breakfast was pretty simple, it was just the usual hotel choice or cereal, nothing special. When we were finished mom sent Dad and I back to the room to collect our bags while she checked us out. I was still slightly confused as to why we were driving all the way to Forks when there was a perfectly good flight that cut off hours of pointless travelling, but whatever, if my parents wanna waste fossil fuels they are more than welcome too.

At some point early into the journey I fell asleep. The constant blur of green and grey that flew past my window was oddly comforting, as if I subconsciously belonged in this place- I knew I didn't. I woke up just as we were approaching the town, it was raining, just my luck. I could see no obvious reason why any person, sane or not, would choose to live in Forks, and I hadn't even got there yet.

We were staying at this pokey motel in one of the many roads that had been clear-cut into the forest. The place had virtually no mod-cons, but you didn't expect that of a place such as Forks. Perhaps the only redeeming part was the fact I would have my own room, however it was still nothing special.

"Marie, were going to get some dinner, you coming?" My dad shouted through the door of my room as I unpacked my bag.

"Yeah Dad, just gimme a sec." I replied as I rummaged through my case to get my bag and more importantly my cell phone.

We went to some pokey restaurant for dinner, it was ok I guess, nothing to fancy. It was the kind of place you saw portrayed in movies set in small towns and definitely not what I was used to back home. The food wasn't great, neither was the company. I was glad when we got back to the motel, being asleep all day had made me horribly tried. I was knackered to say the least, and not at all anxious about what my first full day in Forks would hold, I just wanted to get this trip over with.

AN

Well here is chapter 4. Yes, I havent updated in frickin ever. Bite me.

Im sorry but I have a social life, unfortunately my drama teacher doesn't realise this.

Please review, I need ideas, writers block is soo not fun!

BTW this chapter is dedicated to Bree Carter ( if that's still her username) , basically she reviewed each chapter, it made me happy. Have a virtual cookie on me )

Liviex

Livie's Twilight FanFic J Chapter 4