A/N: You have no idea how sorry I am about my long and unexplained absence from fanfiction. I have become, myself, one of the authors that I hate; the authors that just stop writing and don't offer an explanation. I feel especially bad because while I was on my hiatus, people were still favoriting my story. I feel so guilty. Anyway, I have been having some personal issues that I'm working through right now. I'm going to try to update as regularly as possible, but sadly I am not Alice and cannot see the future. So I can't promise that I will update once a week. But I will promise not to be offline for this long again. Plus, this is one of my longer chapters. So, where we left off…
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story except my own ideas and mistakes.
Witchy Woman
Born a Witch
The next day Bella could barely contain her excitement. Literally jumping out of bed, Bella threw on the first clothes she could find. Stopping only to grab a Pop Tart and the directions from her Dad, Bella nearly flew out to her truck and started out to the store.
As much as Bella wanted to get to the store though, she didn't have the heart to push her truck to go the speed limit. She felt bad for it; it was after all a senior citizen. Still, with a full tank of gas, she reasoned that it would be able to get her to and from Port Angeles before nightfall.
A few hours later and Bella was parallel parking (A/N: I can't parallel park for shit) in front of the "bookstore," though it was rather obvious from the atmosphere and the hippy-looking woman behind the counter that it was more new age than bookstore.
Carefully stepping down from the cab, Bella looked the woman over and, with a start, realized she was a human. It seems Bella had wrongly assumed that the owner was a witch as well.
Bella guessed that the woman started into Wicca or Paganism or some other pre-Christian hedonistic religion and became in tune with the energy around her. That's how most humans became (what they called) witches. To others like Bella and her dad, witches are practically their own species. The difference between witches and human witches is like the difference between purebloods and mudbloods in Harry Potter, it was an aristocratic system, natural witches are held higher than human witches. Although, the reason for this is because natural witches possess much more power and potential than most all human witches. Natural witches would be considered the "Charmed Ones", in pop culture, though there are a lot more than three natural witches in the world, considering it's difficult for a natural witch to die.
Opening the door to the little shop, Bella was greeted with the tinkling of bells above her, and the owner of the shop looked up and smiled.
"You must be Bella" she said, walking around to give her a hug. "It's wonderful to meet you. My name is Irene."
Irene was a slight woman, not much older than her father appeared to be. She wore a long skirt, a peasant blouse and around her neck was a dangling, silver pentacle which confirmed Bella's suspicions about the Wiccan aspect of this woman's witchcraft. Irene had long, blond hair that had a wavy texture to it and was currently pulled back by a leather band. She had eyes that were a striking ice blue color and made her seem always watchful. Her voice was soft, lyrical, and pleasant to listen to.
"Do I look that much like my Dad, Irene?" Bella questioned somewhat jokingly.
"No, dear. I may not be as strong a witch as you or your father, but I can certainly sense the power radiating from you, much stronger than I have ever felt in one being, except your father of course. But that is neither here nor there; I have your fathers usual herbs set aside, but is there anything you would like?" Irene asked with a rather profound emphasis on the 'you'.
Smiling at the fact that Irene seemed to know she was looking for something for herself, Bella replied. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I was wondering if you had any books for identifying plants and the like, as well as books on basic rituals, incantations, and potions."
Irene appeared thoughtful for a moment, then disappeared behind a curtain that Bella hadn't noticed when she got there. Returning a moment later, she had a stack of five books in her hands. The first, she explained, was about potion basics and the uses of each of the most common herbs. The second was an identifying book, a rather large one at that, which boasted of containing over 2,000 of the most common plants in the northwest. The third and fourth were a series of books, the first of which contained rituals for the sabbats and esbats and the other contained more everyday rituals, for strength, knowledge, that sort of thing. The last book, she said was a gift, it was a leather bound book with ancient runes drawn on it. She called it Bella's "Book of Shadows". She said that every witch in ancient times kept their own "Book of Shadows" which contained all of the witch's knowledge and the knowledge of his/her ancestors. "As your power grows, so will your book" she said. "Fill it with spells and potions you create, and important facts that you learn about creatures and plants."
With the assurance from Irene that the purchases would be rung up to Charlie's account, Bella asked for the directions to the nearest plant store and took her bag of bag of herbs and her stack of books out to her truck.
Around 8 at night Bella pulled up at her house and, hopping down from her truck, she called to Charlie to help her with her purchases. When she had gotten to the plant store, she saw that they had quite a large selection of seeds to start a garden, most of which could be used as potion ingredients. She ended up with an armful of seed pouches, and various gardening tools, as she figured Charlie had very few. Setting the herbs bought from the bookstore in the cabinet with the others she had bought at the supermarket the day before, Bella examined the exotic plant stems and seeds that Irene had. There was Angelica, Hemlock, Wolfbane, Nightshade, St. Johnswort, Vervain, Feverfew, Holly, and Foxglove, just to name a few. Bella recognized a few as being poisonous or deadly, Hemlock and Nightshade for example, can be deadly for humans and if handled at all, have to be handled with care.
As Bella was putting the last of the herbs away, the doorbell rang and Charlie answered it, bringing in a pizza box with him. He wasn't sure when Bella was going to get back he explained, so he had pizza delivered. Not in the mood to lecture his bad eating habits, Bella silently consented and ate her pizza rather quickly.
"I'm going to get ready for bed Dad, I'm wiped." Bella said over her shoulder as she walked upstairs to her room.
The next day, Bella was occupied with the garden. It took a lot of work for her to loosen the ground and space the plants evenly, but she got it finished a little after noon and marked off each plants section for reference before retreating to the kitchen and grabbing a sandwich.
Deciding not to waste the little free time to herself, Bella prepared dinner as quickly as she could and then went upstairs to read one of her Jane Austen novels.
Much later that night as she lay down to bed, Bella marveled at how comfortable she was with this lifestyle. She was much more comfortable than she would have thought.
(A/N: The next few paragraphs are almost word for word from twilight, I don't need to change it at all)
In the parking lot Monday morning, many people greeted Bella and, though she couldn't remember all their names, she waved back and smiled. It was colder than usual, though thankfully not raining. In English, Mike sat next to her as usual and there was a pop quiz on Wuthering Heights. Nothing she hadn't seen before.
When they left class, the air was full of swirling bits of white. People were shouting excitedly and the wind bit everyone's cheeks and noses. "Wow" Mike said. "It's snowing."
"Ew." Bella said looking at the snow and scrunching her nose.
"Don't you like snow?"
"No. It means its too cold for rain. Besides, I though it was supposed to come down in flakes you know, each one unique and all that. These just look like the ends of Q-tips."
"Haven't you ever seen snow fall before?" Mike asked incredulously.
"Sure I have." Bella said nonchalantly. "On tv."
Mike laughed and then a big squishy ball of dripping snow smacked into the back of his head. Turning to see who it was, both Mike and Bella had their suspicions about Eric. He was walking away, his back turned to them, in the wrong direction for his next class. Mike bent over and started scraping together a pile of the white mush.
"I'll see you at lunch, okay?" Bella said walking away. "Once people start throwing wet stuff, I go inside." Mike just nodded his eyes on Eric's retreating figure.
Later that day walking to lunch with Jessica, Bella glanced at the corner table out of habit and froze at what she saw. All five Cullens were sitting at their table. Bella was pulled out of her reverie by Jessica elbowing her asking her what she wanted.
"I'm not hungry, I feel a little sick. I'll just have a soda today" Bella said looking down at her feet and catching up with the end of the lunch line. Bella walked with the rest of her friends, hanging her head and staring at the ground, to their lunch table and tried with all her might not to look at the Cullen's. Bella briefly wondered if she should play up her sickness and go home early. She quickly nixed that idea, she wasn't a coward. Thinking for a moment, she made a deal with herself, if he looked angry she would go home, if he wasn't then she would go to Biology.
Bella lifted her head from her arm and looked at the Cullen's table. All five of them seemed to be in a good mood, happy with the snow. Though, she didn't want to be caught staring at them, Bella couldn't take her eyes off of them.
"What are you staring at Bella?" Jessica interrupted her thoughts.
Edwards head lifted and Bella ducked her head, not before seeing that he wasn't angry, merely curious, just as curious about her as she was about him; them, she amended. Could he sense she was different too?
"Edward Cullen is staring at you." Jessica said with a giggle.
"Does he look angry?" Bella asked her.
"No, should he be?"
"I don't think he likes me." Bella semi-confided.
"Don't worry; the Cullens don't notice anyone enough to like them." Jessica trailed off as she got into a conversation with Mike about a snowball fight after school. Ugh Bella though, I'll have to hide out at the gym 'til it's over.
At the end of the lunch hour, Bella resolved herself to fulfilling her promise and going to Biology. Walking into the class, she noticed that the other seat was empty. She sat down and stared intently at her notebook as she doodled a little, registering the scraping of the chair next to her as it was pulled out. Though that wasn't how she knew he was there, she could still feel the odd energy around him as strongly as the first day.
"Hello, I'm Edward Cullen" a soft velvety voice said, startling her. "You must be Bella Swan."
Looking up confused, she saw Edward staring at her expectantly. "I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to introduce myself properly last week." He continued in that irresistible voice.
Completely caught off guard by his change in demeanor, Bella responded. "How did you know my name?"
He looked at her patronizingly "Everyone knows your name; the whole school has been talking about you."
"I meant why did you call me Bella?"
"Do you not like Bella?"
"No, it's just that Charlie, my dad, calls me Isabella, that's how most people know me."
Edward was silent and Mr. Banner started explaining the day's lab to the class. Bella had done the lab before and she and Edward took turns looking through the microscope identifying the phases of cell reproduction.
"Do you wear contacts?" Bella blurted out after they finished with their lab. The rest of the class seemed to be having more difficulty with it and they were the first ones finished.
"No" Edward answered confused.
"Oh, I thought there was something different about your eyes."
And there was. His eyes were an even lighter color than the amber of the first day. If he was telling the truth like she though he was that meant his eyes changed color. They were amber in the cafeteria the first day, then black in Biology class and now a butterscotch color. Something to do with his moods maybe she thought. Considering he had been so angry when they were black, and now, with the lighter color, he was nicer.
After the silence that ensued from her last comment Edward asked her about why she moved to Forks. At first she replied that it was complicated, not willing to give up any information to this creature. She had to keep reminding herself that she couldn't trust him, even though subconsciously she already did. Continuing to push the issue, Bella gave him, bit by bit, the answer that she and Charlie had decided on, her mom had gotten remarried. She liked the guy but he moved around a lot. She wanted to let her mom go with him, so she exiled herself here.
Every time she said something more he made the wrong assumption and Bella felt the need to correct him, not wanting him to get the wrong impression of her mother. She didn't know why it concerned her if he thought her mom had sent her here. Bella wanted to think that it was because she didn't want anyone to think badly about her mom, and not because she wanted to tell this gorgeous boy as much as he wanted to know.
At home that night, Bella recounted her and Edward's conversation with her father and told him what she hypothesized about his eyes. Unable to deal with anymore theories or guesses, Bella said goodnight to her father and got ready for bed.
That night was the first time she dreamed of Edward.