11
Lunch was… strange.
Bella, of course, sat with the Cullen's. Jasper wasn't there so she and Alice sat on one side of the table and Emmett and Rose the other. Bella had brought a sandwich for lunch but the three Cullen's each got a tray from the canteen. Alice shoved her untouched food towards her friend.
"Alice?" Bella asked.
"Well I'm certainly not going to eat it!" Alice said wrinkling her nose up in disgust.
"Nor am I!" Emmett said gleefully, and two more trays appeared under her nose.
"But…"
"Just eat a bit off each tray; it saves us no end of trouble if you do." Rose said.
"Yeah saves me hacking it up afterwards, especially as people are watching us today, if we don't touch the food it looks suspicious, but honest Bella, you don't want to see what we have to go through if we DO eat something." Emmett grabbed his throat and looked even paler than normal, if that were possible.
Bella suddenly flashed back to the day she 'shared' Alice's lunch in Phoenix. At the time she had been reluctant to take the food, now she knew for certain it was an act of charity she was pissed off.
"Don't please," Alice grabbed her arm just as she decided to get up and leave, "I didn't mean anything by it, but I couldn't just sit and watch you eat nothing but a piece of cheese for lunch just because Renée had thrown out the fresh bread." Was that what had happened? Bella couldn't remember the details; she just remembered the taste of the sandwich. How sad was that? That the memory of the taste of something nice lasted so long. She lowered herself the two inches she had managed to rise. "Thank you Bella." Alice sounded humbled. Bella hated this. It was bad enough that she remembered incidents of Renée's utter selfishness, now she knew that all the Cullen's knew too, and with perfect recall, it was devastating.
"No one blames YOU Bella," Rose said, Emmett opened his mouth, it was obvious that he had no idea what the problem was, Rose slapped him on the back of the head before he could say anything.
"Maybe I did something…"
"No, Renée was like that long before she had you, even before Charlie started courting her, there is… was, nothing you could have done."
"Thank God she has Phil now," Bella said, though she wouldn't wish anything bad on the guy he made the choice. She intercepted a look between the two girls. "What?" she asked. They both looked guilty. "WHAT?"
"Not here, Bella." Alice said, "We can explain, but after school."
"Where's Jasper?" Bella asked signalling that she accepted the delayed explanation.
"He had to go hunting," Alice sighed. "Now don't go thinking it's your fault, it isn't, Jasper just has more trouble being close to humans than the rest of us."
So how was it not her fault? Bella thought, she sighed internally. She was allowing Alice Cullen to manipulate her a lot, and she didn't like it. She was used to seeing to herself. Even when Phil started courting Renée and tried to look after her she had resisted, after all those years of being basically self sufficient, it was not only hard, but dangerous to rely on anyone other than herself. She was going to have to put her foot down, even if it caused an argument, if she didn't she could end up being bullied the whole time she was in Washington, a sort of benign dictatorship, but a dictatorship nonetheless.
Alice gasped, damn she had forgotten that!
"I'm sorry Bella, please," Alice almost sobbed.
"Just leave it Alice," Bella said, grateful that the canteen was emptying, it must be almost time for class. She kept her head down and gathered the trays together for bussing.
"I promise, I won't… I didn't mean… I'm SORRY!"
"Ok, ok!" Bella could see the few pupils in hearing turning to see what the fuss was about. She bussed the trays and got the timetable from her pocket. AP Biology with Jasper.
She left the canteen by the door to the outside, not knowing which way the others were headed. Jasper caught up with her as she turned the corner of the building and he held the door for her as she entered the classroom.
The teacher signed the slip and told her to find a seat. The only seat was at a table close to the front of the class, Jasper was already sat in the other place at the lab bench, he got to his feet and gestured for her to get in to the one nearest the window, she grabbed the text book out of her bag and he sat back down at the desk. She did note that he sat almost as far away from her as the desk allowed without being stuck on the end.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, out of the corner of her eye she saw him shake his head, a piece of paper appeared in front of her, as she was at the front of the class this time, she slipped it into the text book. Opening the book, she read the note safe in the knowledge that the teacher would never guess what she was doing.
The teacher was busy explaining a diagram of a flatworm to the pupils, as Bella had done this work over 2 years ago she zoned out and concentrated on the strange conversation with Jasper.
'Don't blame yourself, it isn't your fault. I always have to hunt more than my siblings, I spent a lot of years feeding on humans, it's hard to resist.'
"Yes but if it wasn't for me you wouldn't have to sit as close to one," she whispered.
'Who says? Look around, the class is full, I would much rather sit next to you than to, say, Mike Newton!'
"If it wasn't for me you probably wouldn't even be in Forks, never mind this schoolroom!"
'If not here then we would be somewhere, though humans usually shy away from us… they sense danger… there's always some who tries to be friendly, especially when we first get to a new place'
She had just finished reading when the note was gone again.
"Miss Swan, Mr. Hale." The teacher put two petri dishes on the table. She hated dissection!
"This won't bother you will it?" she asked gesturing to the dish.
Jasper raised an eyebrow in query.
"Cutting into the… thing," she clarified.
She could see him smile and a quiet chuckle escaped him, she blushed, of course it wouldn't bother him, it was a WORM! She did notice he gripped the table a lot harder, in fact she believed she could see tiny flakes of sawdust drift down.
"Are you Ok?" she asked.
'Fine, don't worry about it.' The note paper said.
What was it? Several times Jasper had reacted seemingly out of the blue. It had to be something she did.
"Is there a problem Miss Swan?" The teacher asked. Bella shook her head and blushed again, she reached over and picked up the scalpel. Jasper edged slightly away from her. Oh God, it was her blushing! She blushed even more! The scalpel Jasper was holding bent in his hand as he gripped it too tight. Frantically she cast about in her mind for something to think of that would stop her blushing. At that second rain hit the window next to her and she latched onto the weather, thinking of rain, snow, sleet… all the nasty stuff she would have to deal with from now on, trying to cool the heat in her cheeks.
"Sorry, I can't help blushing," she would do her best though. She sliced into the helpless planarian and wrote her observations on the lesson sheet.
'Not your fault, you can't help it. I'm surprised you realised what it was to be honest, but still, I'd rather sit with you than with any of the others.'
The note disappeared again as the teacher came to see how they were doing. He noticed that they had both finished the class and sighed. It was always hard to keep the intelligent ones interested, and Miss Swan had already graduated in Phoenix, it wasn't really fair to her that she would have to sit through this again. He would look at some of the more unusual advanced syllabus and see if he could find something new for her and Hale to do. Bored students would eventually cause trouble in the class, if only because other pupils would see they were bored and emulate their attitude.
Though Jasper assured her he was fine, she couldn't help breathing a sigh of relief when the bell rang for change of class. Today would be over soon.
Though she had enjoyed the day more than a lot she could remember, she would really rather not sit through the boring repetitive lessons. She really felt sorry for the Cullens. Though, she supposed, it was their choice.
Gym next. She didn't have to look at the timetable; it was engrained on her psyche.
She was pleased that Emmett wouldn't be in the class with her, only Alice. Though she knew he would be fun to be with, she also suspected he would tease her unmercifully about her clumsiness and general lack of grace.
She decided she liked the Gym teacher; he gave her a uniform as soon as she entered the gym but told her she didn't have to participate. She sat on the benches and watched the others as they played volleyball. She winced at the thought of the damage she could do with a volleyball.
One concussion, 3 sprained wrists, 2 twisted ankles and more bruises than she wanted to remember. That was her volleyball total so far. The teacher at her old school had even told her she could sit out of everything but track after the first year. Even then she ended up in the nurse's office two or three times a semester until she could drop the subject.
She got the English Lit homework out and started on it rather than watch the class.
After school let out she walked to the car park. Rose was the only one not with her as she reached her truck. The rain had melted the snow on the ground and the temperature was high enough that ice hadn't formed. This meant she had to take the snow chains off before heading home, she sighed.
As she reached her truck she realised the chains weren't on. Rose was leant on the saloon car in the space next to hers.
"Wow, did you…?" she gestured to the wheels.
"I thought it better than letting you do it," she said with no sign of nastiness in her voice. "I'd rather you didn't injure yourself or even someone else, trying it, after all it isn't something that is easy to do if you aren't used to it." She said.
"But I have the key, how did you move the wheels?" Bella asked, remembering Charlie's demonstration.
Rose just lifted an eyebrow, looked around, and when no one was looking she lifted the wheel off the ground a sliver of an inch with one hand under the wheel arch and kicked the tyre, spinning it around. Wow, Bella knew that the vampires were strong but still.
Rose grinned at her.
"Will I see you all tonight?" Bella asked, not sure if she was going to the Cullen house or if Alice alone was coming to hers.
"I don't think so, we will see." Alice answered for everyone. Bella nodded, it was obvious that Alice made most of the decisions in the family due to her gift. Bella felt a bit awkward about the stand she was going to make against it, but not so awkward that she wouldn't make that stand.
She got into her truck. The engine roared loud in the air as she put it into reverse and carefully backed out. She waved to all her friends and headed home.
Bella walked into the house, surprised to see her father already home. She hadn't noticed the cruiser outside. It was obvious straight away that he was in a terrible mood. Three empty beer cans stood on the table, she had never known him drink more than two, though she had to admit she didn't know him well, it just seemed out of character for him.
"You're home early," she said a trifle uneasy. She had never had to deal with Charlie angry, "anything wrong?"
"I went to the bank today," he said. Bella waited. "To see about putting more money away for your college fund."
"Oh… erm, I didn't even know I had a college fund." She said, at that second the blood drained from her face as she realised what Charlie was mad about. "Oh she didn't!" she whispered.
"I knew it wasn't YOU!" he slammed across the room and took another beer from the fridge, he looked at it for a second then put it back and slammed the door closed again. "There should have been $18,000 in the account, but when I went to the bank I found that there was $55… FIFTY FIVE DOLLARS! I asked for a statement and she withdrew the lot over the summers you were with me. She even drew out everything that was left in the account last month!"
Bella felt sick. All that time she had been saving and struggling and her mother had had access to huge funds and had spent the lot.
"How…?" She didn't even know what to say.
"I need you to write your name on this paper, Bella." Charlie said sliding an official looking form across the table. She looked down at it. It was an account access form. All the details were already filled in, with an x by the blank box labelled signature. She got a pen from her bag and signed the form. At least if Charlie put money into the account now it would be safe from her mother.
Charlie picked the form up and looked at her writing. His jaw clenched and he pulled a photocopy of a withdrawal slip from his pocket. The signature was obviously not hers. Not that she expected it to be, she hadn't signed anything, but her mother hadn't even tried to forge her signature.
"The bank is launching an investigation into this," Charlie said. Bella's heart sank at the thought of all the fuss it was going to cause, but she knew he wouldn't let it rest. "The dates of the withdrawals are all when you were with me, so I knew it wasn't you… not that I thought you would anyway. I sent Mr. Crowley, the assistant manager and Mrs. Gerandy, the manager, proof that you weren't in Phoenix on the dates the money went 'missing' and Crowley has got hold of the branch she used to ask what proofs of identity they asked for. How the hell they allowed a woman in her thirties to get money from a teenager's account that she had no legal access to is astounding. If we are lucky you should get most of the money back as they were totally at fault." He rubbed his hands over his face tiredly.
"Bella, you know what will happen don't you?" He asked softly, still unsure of her loyalty to her mother.
"I do." Bella moved to the fridge and got out the bowl that she had been marinating some chicken pieces in. "Ready for dinner?" she asked.
"Erm, yeah," he looked puzzled, but she knew he wouldn't push her, thank God, for she had no idea how she was supposed to react.
Bella was rather glad that Alice never turned up that night. She had enough to deal with trying to sort out how she felt about Renée and her theft (for it was nothing less) of Bella's college fund. What the hell would she have done if Bella HAD decided to go to college this year instead of to Forks? How the hell did she think she would get away with stealing such a large amount? And from Charlie? A Chief of Police? Even if he did still love her the way Bella thought he had, he could not let something like this slide. Bella knew enough about Forks that it would soon be known what had happened, confidentiality be damned. Renée had often complained about the small town and the way that things that should be secret had a way of being on the gossip grapevine in hours.
(She had raged at one time about the doctors allowing news of an 'infection' she had 'picked up' being circulated. It was when Bella was visiting Forks when she was about 9 or 10 she had heard, while in the local diner, two women gossiping, "her mother was that wife of Charlie's that caught VD, and not from HIM…" the old woman with pink hair had told the young one behind the counter. She had made the mistake of mentioning it to her mother and after the tirade she had looked VD up on the computers at school when the year started; the school Sex Ed classes had called them STD's.) Bella couldn't hope that the bank was any more gossip proof than the doctors. She just hoped that the bank management didn't have any children at school. Nor the teller.
"Don't worry about it, it isn't your fault." Charlie said when she came downstairs the next morning. It was obvious that she hadn't slept well; the dark circles under her eyes and naturally pale skin made her look almost Cullen-like.
"She's going to blame me, you know." She regretted it the second the words were out of her mouth but she couldn't take them back.
"It's always someone else's fault, never Renée's but there's no way she can blame this on you." Charlie said. Bella agreed, but it wouldn't stop her blaming her anyway.
She ate a quick bowl of cereal and left the house as soon as she could. She got to school half an hour early, the only others there were the Cullen's.
She could have done without them knowing, but she knew that was futile. It was obvious that Alice knew what had happened by her not turning up the night before, and if Alice knew they all did.
"I don't want to talk about it." She said as she pulled into the car park and saw them waiting. Even over the noise of the engine and 200 yards, she knew they heard her.
She got out of the truck and swung her bag onto her shoulder.
"Do I want to know what you were going to tell me last night?" she asked.
"No," Alice told her.
"For this once I'll allow you to decide, because if I hear anything more about HER I shall probably scream."
Emmett handed her a Snickers bar.
"What is this for?" she asked.
"My younger sisters always demanded chocolate when they were upset." He explained. "it's one thing I remember well from when I was human." She laughed and was surprised to hear that it didn't sound bitter.
"Thanks," she tore the wrapper and bit into the bar. It was a long time since she had chocolate. How pitiful her life had been, she realised, when chocolate was considered a luxury. Without meaning to allow it, hot tears ran down her cheeks. She had been shown more compassion by this family than by anyone else in her life. Charlie tried but it was obvious that up to yesterday he still had feelings for Renée that she brought to the surface.
Renée had a knack for poisoning anyone near her. Bella hoped Phil would be able to avoid it, but with the bank investigation and probably police involvement, she knew it was unlikely. Phil couldn't afford that sort of money. Though she guessed he would try his best and end up stone broke trying to clear a debt that was mostly incurred before they even met.
Shame swept through her. Even though she couldn't say that she had done anything to be ashamed of. She hadn't made Renée steal that money, she hadn't made her forget to pay the bills, or forget to buy food, or anything else like that. In it all she was innocent, but it didn't stop her feeling ashamed.
Jasper's hand landed on her shoulder and calm swept through her. She took a deep breath and dried her eyes on her sleeve. "You Ok darlin'?" he asked, the soft southern burr was rather comforting. She nodded her head and shoved the last bite of chocolate into her mouth. She could hardly swallow, her throat was so thick, but Jasper kept in touch with her until she had her emotions under control and then let go.
"Thanks," she told them all.
"We could just replace the money," Emmett said, even though Alice had turned the suggestion down when they were discussing it at home earlier.
"That isn't the point, is it?" Bella said.
"I suppose not, but we could arrange for it to be paid in at the same branch that she withdrew it from, make it look like she put it back."
"Why should you pay for her? If she gets away with this she will never learn." Bella knew it was unlikely she would ever learn anyway, she never had before. "No, leave it. I don't care anymore." It was a lie, she knew it and they knew it. But they accepted it for now and the five of them slowly made their way to the school buildings.