Wednesday, October 10, 2000
The Swan Household
6:00, Dinnertime
"That smells good!" Charlie calls from the living room, over his turned on television.
"Yeah, well it'll be done soon!" Bella called back in a much softer tone. She was happy, all things considered. Gym was still a worse version of hell on earth, as usual. Her new friend Angela, while a bit nosy was alright. Jessica and Mike were still a tier above her though. Although if Bella was being honest with herself, all three of them would probably leave her sooner or later in spectacular fashion. "But why's that, I wonder?" Bella whispered to herself.
Charlie pulled up a chair to the counter, he sat down and Bella could practically feel the smile penetrating the back of her skull through her brown hair. "How have you been feeling lately?" Charlie asked curiously.
Before answering Bella listened carefully. Even though it was clear he was trying to hide it, Bella could obviously tell that her father's question was loaded even more than the loaded baked potatoes she had just made for dinner. "Oh, thing's have actually been looking up recently," Bella said.
"All things considered," Charlie muttered.
"Wait what?!" Bella questioned, a panicked rise in her voice made Charlie's head snap up.
"Oh… uh… well…" Charlie stuttered, he could clearly see the accusatory and suspicious look on his daughter's face. But ignoring it for reasons only known to him he continued, "Pass me a potato?"
Hiding her sour expression behind her hair, Bella got out two plates. She slipped on hot pads, put two loaded potatoes onto said plates, and slid one towards Charlie. He took it, and caught the silverware Bella threw him.
"Did anything interesting happen at school?" Charlie asked yet again another question.
"It was okay," Bella said, trying to ignore the headache that was currently besetting her. Her mind was hazy, and she suddenly felt sick to her stomach. But very strangely indeed, she was still able to stomach a decent slice of her now split down the middle loaded potato.
"Have you got your Halloween costume all planned out ahead of time? Have you made plans for the weekend?" Charlie rapid fired two more questions. Not even bothering to touch his food, despite the fact that his hands looked like they wanted to, gripping the silverware and such.
Now Bella didn't even bother to disguise her suspicion. She kept from answering and elevating the situation, by downing some more of her potato. As Charlie kept asking her questions, Bella kept eating her potato instead of responding. This standoff lasted about 4 minutes, but suddenly Bella had run out of potato! Now she had no way to not answer her father's next question, "What, exactly is your relationship with the person who hurt you?"
"I… I kind of want an explanation from him," Bella said swallowing nervously. "Like … why did he shove me into that locker?"
"Wait… what?" Charlie said, his face darkening. "He did that, all by himself? Bella the entire row of lockers was smashed apart, and the wall behind was cracked …"
Charlie fell silent after that, and then and only then did he take the first bite of his potato, which by now had begun to cool down.