Chapter 4

Bella woke up when she heard Charlie walking to the front door and closing it behind him. Another early morning at the station. Recently, Charlie had been putting in a lot of hours at work. Bella rolled over and looked at her alarm clock – 7.15am. She decided it was time to get up and get ready for another week of school.

At school, Bella found she was a bit of a loner. She had friends – Angela, Ben and, sometimes unfortunately, Jessica, though she sometimes hung around with Candice and Caroline in an attempt to be accepted into their circle – who she sat with at lunch. There were others, acquaintances, that she seldom spoke to in class or at lunch, but she never really felt that any of them were real friends. They didn't get her. Not like Jacob does she thought.

Bella had Calculus first period. She sat beside Jessica in calculus, this will be interesting Bella thought to herself. She walked through the crowded corridors, navigating her way to her first class of the day. Mike waved at her from across the hall, making his way in her direction. Bella smiled, but kept walking, hoping that he wouldn't follow her. But she wasn't so lucky.

"Bella! Bella!" Mike called from behind her. She tried to ignore him. "Bella!" But he was starting to draw attention to her. She spun on her heel and Mike was practically running so fast to catch her to all but ran right into her.

"Sorry!" Mike apologised, "I just wanted to say sorry for missing your party on Friday night. My mom said it would be best for me to stay in, and she was probably right. I didn't know you had invited Tyler, Brad and James." He said the three names in a hushed voice as if he didn't want anyone to hear him speak about them. Which was probably good because Mike was prone to getting picked on by the three jocks.

"I didn't invite them." Bella said bluntly, forcing the images that came flooding into her mind away.

"I heard there was a fight! I'm glad I didn't come, I wouldn't want to be involved in something like that!" Mike said animatedly. Bella laughed internally at Mike for ever thinking he could or would get involved in the fight at her house. "No offence, Bella, but your friend Jason sounds like a bit of a bully."

"His name is Jacob. And what do you mean bully?" Bella could feel her blood begin to boil already. Rumours spread like wildfire at Forks High. Bella assumed in the past it was because nothing ever happened in Forks, so when someone got hold of any gossip, they couldn't help but tell everyone else. She thought that those with the gossip loved having the attention of the rest of the school so much, that they probably fabricated it to make sure their listeners were enticed by their story.

"Well, I heard about what he done to Tyler. Tyler isn't even in school today he beat him so bad!" Mikes' eyes were wide as he spoke. "I know he's your friend, Bella, but maybe you should be careful around him. Someone with such short tendencies, like him, is dangerous. He could snap for no reason again, and it might be toward you next time."

Bella wanted to grab Mike by the shoulders and give him a good shake. But she knew it wasn't his fault, he was only retelling the story that he had been told.

"Who told you this?" Bella could barely move as her anger ran through her whole body.

"Well…I…No one in particular. I was at my locker, and I heard a bunch of girls talking about it. I wasn't eavesdropping…they were just talking loudly. It was impossible not…"

"Who was it?" Bella cut Mike off mid-sentence.

"Candice, Caroline and their friends." Mike said the names wearily. As soon as Bella got the information she needed from Mike she turned on her heel again and made her way to Calculus. Because Bella had spent so much time talking to Mike, the bell started to ring when she was only half way to the classroom. She quickened her step and arrived a few minutes late.

Jessica was sitting at their usual table and beamed a huge smile at her when she walked into the class. Bella had to stop herself from walking straight up to her and slapping that stupid grin off her face. She sat down beside Jessica and pulled her books from her backpack.

"Ughh… I soo can't be bothered with calculus today! Mr McColl is soo boring!" Jessica said, the same thing she said every Monday morning.

Bella didn't answer her. She couldn't. She knew if she did she might scream at her in the middle of the class.

"Bella? Are you okay?" Jessica said, eyeing Bella's fingers clenched around her pencil.

"What do you think?" Bella said, she could taste the poison in her words.

"Wh…What?"

"You invited your stupid little 'friends' to my house on Friday night without even asking me, then Tyler harassed me! I'm lucky Jacob was there to help me, otherwise who knows what Tyler would have tried to do! And now when I come into school, I hear that you've all made up a little story in that Jacob is the bad guy. That Jacob reacted without cause! Who do you think you are?" Bella spoke in a quietened voice, so as not to attract the attention of Mr McColl.

"I…Wh…Tyler was just drunk! It wouldn't have gone any further! You know that." Jessica rebutted in the same tone.

"I can't believe you are defending him!" Bella had raised her voice without even noticing.

"Miss Swan! Quieten down. Pay attention!" Mr McColl shouted from the bottom of the room, though Bella hardly took any notice. Jessica turned from Bella and picked up her pencil as if she was paying attention to the lesson, but Bella didn't move.

"You are supposed to be my friend, Jessica. But I can see where your loyalties lie." Bella still hadn't lowered her voice. The whole class was now staring in her direction.

"MISS SWAN! Take yourself out of my classroom to calm yourself down. Don't come back this period." Bella was actually relieved Mr McColl had sent her out of the room, she knew she wouldn't be able to sit with Jessica for a full hour and not say anything. Bella picked up her books as quick as she could and threw them into her bag, shoved her stickynotes into her pocket, and made her way for the door. "Oh and Bella," Mr McColl continued when she reached the door, "I'll see you back here for detention at 3pm." Bella didn't stop walking and made her way out to the corridor.

She walked down the east hallway and out to the school grounds. It was a cold day, winter was well on its way she thought. Not that there was much difference in the weather throughout the seasons in Forks. Only winter was colder. She walked around the school until she reached the parking lot, then she made her way to her car. She pulled out her cell and brought up Jacobs number.

I'm having the worst day ever and it's not even 9.15am yet! Hope your day is going better than mines. I'll call you later – B x

Bella hit send and rolled her head back to lean on the headrest on the seat. She couldn't believe Jessica had stuck up for Caroline and Candice, and even worse… she had stuck up for Tyler! She tried not to think about it because every time she did she got wound up again.

Suddenly, Bella's phone vibrated in her hand. Expecting a reply from Jacob she opened the text without reading the name.

I'm sorry, Bella. But you didn't see Tyler. He was beat up real bad. By the time James and Brad got him to the hospital they said he was barely even recognisable! He has a broken nose, fractured cheekbone AND broken ribs. Never mind black eyes and burst lip. Tyler was just drunk. He didn't deserve what Jacob did to him. Jacob could have just asked him to leave…or something. Jacob is just lucky that Tyler isn't pressing charges on him. See you at lunch x – Jess.

Bella laughed at the irony in Jessica's choice of words 'I'm sorry' she was anything but sorry! And 'See you at lunch x', that was going to be damn near impossible when Bella had already decided she wasn't going to be attending lunch. And the rest of the school day for that matter.

Bella turned the key in the ignition and listened to the old truck spurt to life. She backed it out of the lot and made her way back to Forks. Charlie wouldn't be home, so he wouldn't find out she skipped school until later. She would deal with it later. For now she just wanted to be away from Forks High and all the people in it.

When she arrived at the house, she cut the engine and pulled her bag out of the passenger seat and into the house with her. She noticed there was a message on the answering machine so she hit play as she made her way past and flopped onto the couch.

"Hi, Bella. Just letting you know, I will probably be home late tonight. There's been a…uh, well there's a lot going on down here today and I need to stay here. I won't be home for dinner. You should go down to Jacob and Billy's instead of eating alone or something… I'm sorry for working late, I feel like I leave you alone too much! You should be with people, call your friends and go into Port Angeles or something… Take money from the emergency jar if you need some. Maybe that will help make up for me working so much. Have a good night, Bells. I love ya..." Then the message tone beeped. Bella smiled at her dad. He never was great at leaving messages.

So at least Charlie wouldn't be in until late tonight, she might not even have to deal with his lectures about skipping school until tomorrow. Well she hoped anyway. Bella turned on the TV and started flipping through them.

Once settled on E! she made her way to the kitchen and decided to make herself some soup. She poured the lentil liquid into a saucepan and lit Charlie's old gas stove. Only it didn't light. Bella pulled out the matches from the drawer beside her and held the flame near the gas burner and it lit easily, popping the small box into her pocket absentmindedly. Once her soup was ready, she poured it in a mug and made her way back to the couch.

After a few hours of watching unfunny sitcoms and embarrassing chat shows Bella decided to go for a walk to kill some time. She would visit Jacob later, around dinner time, like Charlie said, but it was still early, Jacob would still be at school.

She pulled on her coat and boots and locked the door behind her. Bella knew exactly where she was going to go. She had found this place with Jacob when they were younger. And Bella made regular trips here throughout the years with and without Jacob.

She made her way over to the woods and took a deep breath as she took the first step inside. Bella wasn't frightened of the woods, she could make her way easily to the spot. But her mind raced over her nightmare from Saturday afternoon. She pushed those thoughts away, it was still daylight! And she trudged through the thick underbrush. Usually the ground was soggy, but Bella noticed it was unusually dry today. She didn't complain, as it made the journey to the spot way easier.

Finally she reached the spot she was looking for. It was a small clearing, no bigger than a few square meters. It was secluded, thick bushes surrounded the little spot, and fallen logs made, what seemed like perfect seats. Bella sat down on one of the naturally formed seats and just watched what was going on around her. She watched trees swaying in the breeze and leaves falling and fluttering to the forest floor.

She had lost track of how long she had been sitting in the woods before she became aware of how cold it was getting. Bella stuffed her hands in her pockets to keep them warm, but her fingers came into contact with a small box. She pulled the matches from her pocket and instantly stood, looking around for some decent firewood.

She didn't know the first thing about building fires, but she assumed it couldn't be that hard. Once she had gathered some dried up branches that she thought would work, she placed them in as best a pyramid shape she could make. She held out the matchbox and took a match from inside. She struck it against the sandpaper and held it in amongst the small sticks around the bottom of her pyramid. When the match burned down she dropped it and watched as it finally burned out, making not impression on the small pieces of wood.

She needed something to light to make a better flame before she lit the twigs. She stuffed her hand into her jacket pocket again and pulled out her small pad of stickynotes.

Shortly after lighting the stickynotes, the branches took light and Bella pushed them closer to the pyramid with another branch. Within a few minutes the pyramid was burning brightly, and Bella had a proud feeling inside her.

She held her hands out to the fire to warm them. The heat radiating from the fire was massaging her ice cold hands. She was warmed up in no time and lay across one of the fallen logs on her back. She looked straight up at the sky, all she could really see were the tree tops and then above them, a sheet of white could. No spots of the blue sky in sight. She watched the trees swaying back and forth…back and forth…back…forth…and soon her eyes closed on her as she fell asleep.

Bella was in school again. Though this time, there was no one there. The corridors were empty. She walked through, confused why no one was around. She looked at her watch and realised it was 5.30pm. So that's why no one was here. But then, why was she there? Bella made her way out of the school and around to the parking lot. Though, as if things weren't strange enough, her car wasn't in the lot. There was a silver car in the distance though. It was so far away though, that it didn't look like it was even in the school parking lot. It was probably parked out on the road. So, there was no alternative but to start walking home. She started trudging up the main road that lead through Forks and to her home. But, it would be at least 45 minutes before she got home. Bella knew she could half that time if she cut through the woods. She wasn't positive of the way, but she decided to chance it. As she made her way through the woods, she realised it began to get dark…fast. She quickened her pace and hoped that she would see the street lights of the street leading to hers soon. As the light fell from the sky, and temperature fell even more. Bella broke into a jog, hoping to keep herself warm this way. She jogged for a while and soon enough sweat broke on her forehead. Her jogging plan was working, it was keeping her warm. She kept going, at an even pace, but soon she was too hot. The sweat was not just on her forehead but all over her face, her hands…her entire body felt hot. Bella stopped running, but found herself gasping for air. Her air tasted foul. She gasped and panted, trying to find decent air. Stumbling forward, away from this smell. A smell she couldn't put her finger on, but it stung her eyes. Her lungs burned like a smoker after a 100m race…A smoker…Smoke.

Bella's eyes opened and were instantly stung by clouds of smoke enveloping her. She wanted to sit up, to stand and run. But she was weak. Her eyes stung but she opened them once more to see the flames burning brightly around her. Licks drew up the trees, and the shrubs around her were all but gone. Then before her eyes closed one final time, they lay upon a silhouette in front of her.

So! I did say things would start to heat up..!(Haha okay, bad pun!) I realise quite a lot of you are reading this story which I am so thankful for. But I am still pretty low on reviews, show the love people!

~Alison