Beep-beep, beep-beep, sang my alarm clock. I glanced at the time. It was 6:00. Good that gives me enough time to get ready for school, I thought.
I had had a wonderful time at Bella's place two nights ago. Charlie was really nice I might have been imagining it but Renee and Charlie seemed rather shy around each other. Almost like they liked each other. But like I said I was probably just imaging it. Funny how you can imagine things like that when you want them so badly, like a complete loving family.
We had actually completely finished unpacking by mid-afternoon, Sunday, and by then the electrician had come and he fixed the stove, fridge, and heat, but he recommended getting new appliances soon. Renee and I were slightly embarrassed by this, but he was nice and cheap and worked efficiently so it all worked out in the end.
I clambered out of bed and made my way over to my closet. I pulled on a pair of straight-leg jeans and a blue and white striped sweater. I went to the bathroom and looked at my reflection. A tall slender very tired looking girl glared back at me. I had gotten dark bags under my eyes from the stress of moving and working do hard for the past couple of days. My sapphire blue eyes were dull and tired. My long naturally wavy dark brown hair was in knots and looked neglected.
Sighing, for what seemed like the tenth million time this week, I pulled out my brush and dragged it through my hair. Eventually all the knots were out. I got my rarely used cover-up out and spread it on my skin, grimacing the way it made my skin look plastic. I used to take pride in my hair and skin, but ever since the divorce everything had gone downhill. I quickly ran some mascara over my eyelashes then scurried downstairs. Renee must have already left because there was a note of the left-behind-table.
Ave,
I left for work today and I'll be home around 6:00. Have fun at your first day of school and good luck!
I love you!!
Mom
She had gotten a job as a lawyer. She had been really happy when she came across the opportunity in McCall. Apparently the job paid well (don't all lawyers get paid very well…?), and Renee promised with the new money income the house would be much nicer soon.
Also on the table was a bowl, a spoon, a jug of milk and a box of Rice Krispies my favorite cereal. We had, fortunately, been able to go grocery shopping on Sunday.
Glancing at the time on the wall I realized it was getting late, 6:56. I had four minutes to eat and brush my teeth. I inhaled my breakfast and hurried back upstairs to do some teeth brushing. I grabbed my backpack and hopped in the rickety SUV. I was able to find my way to the school with no problem (thanks to the fact that Bella had shown me how to get there). With 15 minutes to spare until the start of school, at 7:30 I hurried to what looked like the main office. I opened the door and was pleasantly surprised to see Bella sitting in one of the chairs near a desk. A ghostly pale and amazingly handsome guy was sitting next to her mumbling something in her ear. They both looked up as well as the receptionist lady behind the desk as I entered. Bella and the lady both stood up but the guy remained sitting, looking somewhat tense.
"Hi Avery! I was hoping I could meet you here and show you the way to your classes and stuff."
"Oh hi! Yea, that would be super if you could," I replied biting my lip.
"Of course. I would love to!"
"So you are Avery Harrison the new girl?" asked the lady behind the desk.
"Uh, yea," I said a bit awkwardly.
"Here's your schedule and I see here Miss Swan's going to be showing you around."
"Yea, thanks."
"Sure, if you have any questions please ask me," she said before picking up a phone call.
I nodded and turned to Bella who was having a heated discussion with the boy who was sitting beside her before.
"…fine go ahead I'll see you in class. I love you," she said before hugging the guy and he kissed her cheek. I could see Bella's cheeks blush and I smiled. So this must be her boyfriend.
"Thanks, I love you too," he replied grinning an adorable crooked smile. He and Bella exchanged one last loving look before departing. As the guy came past me to exit, I heard him say to me, "Watch over her she attracts a lot of trouble quite often," before disappearing. I giggled as Bella made her way after me.
"What? What did he say to you when he went by you?"
I pretended innocence. "Huh? What are you taking about?"
She glared at me but dropped the subject as we also headed out into the bustling hallway. "So that was Edward my boyfriend."
"You guys seem so perfect for each other. I could tell instantly. The way he looked at you was so sweet."
"Hmm…yea we get that a lot. So how bout you? Do you have a boyfriend?"
I felt a pang of guilt as I realized I hadn't called him since Saturday, let alone even think about him. "Uh, yea. Yea I do. He's Will."
"Oh, that's so cool. What's he like? I would love to meet him."
"Yea, that would be cool if you could meet him; except that he's in back in Idaho so I don't think it's gonna work to well."
She must have picked up the sadness in my voice because she said, "Oh I'm so sorry. Hey how about on Friday we go to the movies with a couple of my uh…friends? You know to get your mind off of things?"
I grinned and said, "Uh yea I would love that!"
"I just have to make sure that my friends would be umm…comfortable with it." Catching the confused look on my face she hastily added, "You know its sometimes awkward meeting new people."
"Mmkay."
"Well here we are French 301. I'll drop you off here and then meet you back for math 'because I think we both have it together. My boyfriend Edward also has it with us and Alice my friend does too so that'll be fun."
"OK, that sounds great! Thanks so much Bella!" I opened the door to the French room and walked in. I turned around just in time to see Edward come up behind Bella and embrace her. Turning back around again, I glanced around the classroom. It looked like a mix of grades from 9th all the way to seniors, like me. The walls were covered in colorful pictures of France and French words were everywhere. I had been able to take a test to see what French class I would fit in so I guess it landed me in level 3. The students were all muttering and laughing at jokes that they had made.
Then from what seemed like nowhere a guy jumped right in front of me. I doubled back slightly surprise.
"Hiya! I'm Mike! Are you a senior? What's your name? You know, you're kind of pretty."
"Oh, uh hi. I'm Bella. Huh…thanks, I think," I said very taken aback, and muttering the last part. Whoa! What was the matter with this guy? He was like super hyper. Mike looked like he was just about to say something else, when the start of class bell rang. In walked a petite lady dressed very nicely, but with a kind of wild look to her. I don't know why, but I instantly detested her. She reminded me of some sort of little gorilla.
"Bonjour! Please take your seats class! Chip-chip!" I heard sniggers from around the class at her European version of what seemed like should be chop-chop. I looked around and saw an empty seat behind a quiet looking girl. I took that one. The teacher started off be doing roll call and introduced me. Of course I had to blush and trip on my way to the front of the class. How embarrassing!!
After that the rest of the day seemed to go by pretty fast. At lunch I had sat with Bella and her friends. They all were adopted siblings. Alice, with whom I had met at math, instantly bonded with me. We both loved shopping. She promised to take me shopping soon. Rosalie, the other girl, was very self-absorbed and merely said hi to me the entire day. She was however very pretty. Emmet was a very big muscular guy that had an instant brotherly vibe about him. Jasper was a kind of smallish guy with a tense attitude about him. He sat furthest away from me and went up to "go to the bathroom often." Not only that that was weird but all of the siblings were obviously very pale, beautiful, very wealthy, but they also seemed to have no appetite. But I pushed that aside.
Later that evening (8:00 p.m. ish)…
"Hi sweetie! How was your first day of school?"
"Oh hi mom. Its was good. I met a whole lot of great people today." Renee had just waked in from the door from work, sopping wet because of the rain.
"Oh well that great honey! Are you guys going to be doing something soon?" Renee asked coming over and hugging me. I was on the couch doing my math homework. I had five more problems and I would be done with homework.
"Yea, on Friday we are gonna go to the movies. Oh and by the way I made pasta and a salad. I have the leftovers on the table. I didn't think you would be coming home this late. Sorry."
"Oh that's great! Thank you so much!"
"I'll come in and join you in a sec." This day had gone better than I could have expected. Maybe Renee was right. Maybe getting a new start to life would be better.