Hello dear readers! Life has been very busy. Love, work and other randoms have kept this girl over here either really busy or very tired! But here is an update for you! It's been a long time coming, I know.
FOF's
ShadowCub- I hope Eddy keeps his mouth shut too! The answer to that question is in another chapter or 2 I believe. Enjoy! :)
CountingNumbers- I'm sure your request of writing a previously would not be a problem. I do have one question though (so until I get your answer, there won't be one for this chapter), I switch their POVs every chapter, so do you want the last few lines of the last chapter? Or the last few lines from that persons last POV? Or I could do a little bit of both. Otherwise, thanks for joining in on the fun and enjoy the new chapter! :)
tlc125- Alice is def very stressed! And she's going to be for a little while longer unfortunately. She gets to be the one dealing with the stress from all angles, while still attempting to keep her cheery facade intact. Enjoy! :)
DeJee- In the next few Alice chapters, you will find out how the rest of the family reacts. Any ideas on how each one might react? ;) Enjoy! :)
HarleyQuinnDavidson- Thank you thank you! Enjoy as always dear! :)
HomeByTwilight- Thank you for your understanding! Not many people voice their understanding towards people like me who love doing this, but who never have the time or energy when there is time. (which always seems to be my problem - either no time, or no energy). But my one promise has always been that I will never let my stories go unfinished! I just hope I can finish them while there are still people to read the ones I post about. lol Enjoy!
TheSpunkRansom- Thank you! Enjoy! :)
Apathicus- If you haven't been told yet, because my response is coming months later, FOF means Feedback on Feedback. And thanks for reading! Enjoy! :)
TigerDiva10- Sorry for the delay, please enjoy! :)
Neb87- I've got quite a few tricks up my sleeve for this fic. Hopefully I don't take terribly long amounts of time and you'll stick around to see where it goes! Enjoy! :)
Zlrs- I try to keep story lines as realistic as possible. Excluding the vampires of course! lol But on all other things, I do try and make story lines and back stories and personalities based on real life events that actually happen. Granted, there are things in this world that happen daily that could blow anyone's mind with how unlike it seems. (my gf's an EMT and she has the craziest stories, lol) But you get my point. Thanks for reading! Enjoy! :)
Kyle37- Thanks! Sorry for the delay! Enjoy! :)
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And as always, thanks to all the silent readers and people who add me to the alerts and faves! Means a lot!
peace&love
-Mel
Bella
Can you say odd day?
Cause that's exactly what it was. I mean, it wasn't much different than it usually is, but the end was definitely strange, to say the least.
Alice Cullen spoke to me. And don't think I missed the baffled expressions of other nearby students. Apparently it's out of the norm for a Cullen to speak to anyone outside of their little group; so the fact that she loudly called out to me, Isabella Swan -the school's newest outcast-, would be extremely shocking to anyone.
She has a gorgeous voice. Not that it was the first time I'd heard it, obviously, but it was the first time that her amazing voice was directed towards me. Her voice almost reminded me of the soothing sounds of a harp, or soft tinkering bells. Or a mix of both really.
But I still couldn't help that I was on high alert during the entire encounter; wondering if her speaking to me was just some ploy for her to be as heartless as the rest of the assholes I call class-mates.
However, it didn't seem like so when she said she had to go. She seemed almost sad that she had to say good-bye to me. As if she wanted to keep talking. I also didn't miss the fact that she appeared sort of nervous the entire time we were speaking.
Just a rather odd day indeed.
I'm walking through the town, window shopping for "Now Hiring" signs, only half paying attention really. I have more than enough money saved up from my old job in Phoenix to support myself for at least a couple of months. I never spend money unless absolutely necessary. So a good seventy percent of it went into savings.
I pass a hole-in-the-wall book store near the end of main street and stop to gaze in through the front window for a moment. It's definitely no Barnes & Noble or Borders, but it's the kind of place that you can tell you'd find a good classic in any day. Shrugging to no one but myself, I head inside to browse around. There's nothing better to do.
As I walk through, a bell attached to the door dings and I hear a muffled "welcome" come from someone near the back of the stuffy room. As I begin to look around, the owner of the voice comes out and I nearly do a double take at the seemingly familiar face.
"Hi, welcome to Oldens." The older woman tells me with a kind smile and I give her a confused smirk back.
"Thanks." I murmur, still studying her features. She resembles someone, but I can't quite put my finger on who it is for whatever reason. But it's like I can't get that feeling of "knowing someone" out of my mind.
She notices me still staring and tilts her head, now studying my expression silently, as if not wanting to break any train of thought I may be having. Her brown eyes are the most familiar feature, seeming so warm and kind, but I still can't seem to put my finger on whose brown eyes they resemble.
After a few long moments, she finally clears her throat, "Is there something I can help you find dear?" She asks hesitantly.
I shake my head, clearing my hazy thoughts. "Uhm, I just stopped to browse around." I tell her softly, my eyes still glued to her face. But I look away when she gives me a concerned smile.
"Well just let me know if there's anything in particular I can help you find." She tells me, before heading towards the small check-out counter and sitting down.
"Thank you." I whisper and turn to start looking through the small stacks of books sitting by the door.
There are definitely a lot of classics sitting here collecting dust. People don't know what they're missing by letting these sit around. I come across a collection of poems by Pablo Neruda, and put the book that had been sitting on top of it aside. I flick through some of the pages for a minute and decide to buy it.
I walk over to the counter where the lady is sitting quietly, writing something down and humming lightly.
I clear my throat softly, so as not to startle her with my suddenly close proximity.
"Oh, did you find something?" She asks with a bright smile.
"Yes ma'am." I reply and hand over the book.
"Neruda! Excellent choice! He is an amazing poet." She states with a smile and I give her a small one back.
"I agree. He has some pretty good work." I nod.
"That'll be twelve-ninety-nine." She tells me and I pull my book-bag around to pull my wallet from it. I hand her thirteen.
"I hope you don't find this to be weird, but you look oddly familiar." I decide to say.
Before she has a chance to respond, the bell above the door sounds again and we both turn our attention to it's location.
"Sorry I'm late Mama, I had to oversee after-school detention today." The woman states as she walks in, shaking the rain from her jacket, her face turned away from us as she does so.
But the voice rings loud and clear to my ears and it instantly clicks.
"Oh, hi Isabella." Mrs. Valentine says with a wide smile upon turning and seeing me standing here.
"Hi, Mrs. V." I give her a genuine smile in return.
"I see you found the best book store in town." She states amused, "and you happen to have already bought something as well!" She says even more excitedly as she comes over and holds her hand out like an eager child waiting for a cookie.
I hand the book over wordlessly, and her eyes light up upon reading the binding of the book since the front is blank.
"Such a good choice! Neruda is one of my favorites. I have a copy of all his books at my place." She smiles even more brightly, if at all possible, before handing the book back over to me.
"Yea, he's one of the best. That's for sure."
"So, I'm going to assume that you teach, Isabella was it?" The store owner asks as she comes to stand next to us.
"Yes ma'am." I nod.
"You teach Isabella at school?" She smiles warmly at the both of us, and I see the signs of her older age crinkle in the corners of her eyes.
"Yes Mama, Isabella's the new student I was telling you about the other day."
"Oh, the bright one with the knack for poetry!" Her mother recalls and they both just nod.
I stand here quietly, not really knowing what to say, and feeling just slightly awkward knowing that I was the subject of some of their conversations. So I decide to just say good-bye.
"It was nice meeting you ma'am, I'm sure I'll be back again in a few days for something else. And it was good to see you Mrs. Valentine." I tell them politely and head for the door after they say their own good-byes.
As I leave, I hear them begin to banter about the condition of the store, and how they really need to get it more organized. But Mrs. V. just argues that the store itself is already too much for her mother to take on, and that she shouldn't concern herself with much more than that. And it's then that I hear her mother tell her that she should really hire some help in the afternoons so that Mrs. V. can get the store cleaned up some.
I'll have to talk to Mrs. Valentine about it tomorrow at school. Cause I definitely wouldn't mind spending some free time surrounded by all those classics. And it would keep me busy after school as well.
I head out of town, in search for the trail that I'd come across last week, my first night here. I figure if no one else is there than I can just relax and read this new book for a little while before heading home. I haven't really seen much of my father, and from the looks of it, we both avoid each other in equal parts. It's fine with me, less stress to deal with.
As I head down the trail I hear the faint sound of voices that grow louder the closer I come to the lake. When I'm close enough to start seeing into the clearing, I catch a glimpse of some of the jocks here with their cheerleader girlfriends. Aggravated by this revelation, I scan the entire clearing and notice that the trail picks up a few yards away from where I'm standing. I head through the trees, walking carefully so that my already uncoordinated feet won't trip on something and bring attention to myself.
When I make it to the opposite trail I start walking along it, and decide to pull my iPod out once the voices from the lake have faded behind me. I hum softly to the music and walk for what seems like twenty minutes before I notice something in the trees. It was only very brief, but it managed to stop me dead in my tracks for a moment. The only thing I hear is the music coming from my ear buds -which are now hanging from my hand- as I listen carefully to everything around me. Scared that there might be a wild animal nearby. When I don't hear anything more, I release the breath that was beginning to make my lungs burn. I turn to start walking again when I notice a smaller trail winding through the trees. I look cautiously around me once more, making sure that there really isn't some animal creeping around a tree waiting to pounce at me. When I still don't see anything, I head for the smaller trail that's winding away from the one I'm on. I leave my ear phones out so that I can listen more closely to the forest and end up walking for another twenty minutes or so. I feel the pull in my leg muscles, which tells me that I must be heading slightly uphill now. When I finally see a clearing coming up ahead, I sigh in relief of no longer being in the forest anymore and being able to take a break.
When I finally break free from the trees, I gasp in shock. The slight incline I felt myself walking up paid off as I see nothing but the rest of the forest and mountains spread out before me. I walk cautiously to the edge of the cliff I'm on, testing it with my toes, as I inch my way closer. When I'm almost on the edge, I decide to stop, knowing my clumsy nature would surely show itself if I tested my limits. I peer over and see that I'm not up too high, maybe thirty feet at the most, but the scenery laid out before me is absolutely breathtaking.
I take a step back and glance around the small clearing. There's a fallen tree off to one side that's laying adjacent to the cliff, so I decide to make that my place of residence to sit and relax. Dropping my bag on the ground, I sit down against the tree and just stare out at everything for a few minutes. Everything looks too gorgeous not to. Even though the sky is overcast and gray, the air feels crisp and smells fresh. The mountains in the distance are slightly blurred from the low hanging clouds and fog, but it's all still captivating.
I finally pull my new poetry book from my bag and open it up, flipping through some pages, before stopping and reading different poems. I'm not usually one for reading everything in order, at least not at first. After a few minutes though, I realize that my mind is not very focused on reading, instead it's wandering to thoughts of Alice's supple lower lip and how pouty it looked when she was saying goodbye; her golden honey eyes and the way they seem to smolder. The way she walks, almost like she's dancing gracefully with every step she takes. Everything about the girl quite obviously screams beautiful. So I don't understand why it seems like she's the only one in her family that isn't paired up with someone. In my opinion, she's prettier than the other female in her family. Then again, maybe she does have someone, and they just don't go to our school. According to the little that I've heard, they're all adopted by the same couple. The town's perfect doctor and his stay at home wife. They must have a soft spot for homeless youth. Apparently Jasper -the one who hates me- and the other girl, Rosalie -who never appears as quite friendly either- are brother and sister. They're the only two in the family who have different last names. The other three took the doctor's last name of Cullen. And if I overheard correctly as well, Alice and the bronze haired boy are half-siblings. But you never know what's true until you actually hear it from the source and well, no one ever talks to any of them so there's never an accurate story floating around I'd assume.
I stay long enough for the temperature to begin dropping and the sun to start setting. But I decide it probably wouldn't be very safe to stay this deep in the forest while it's dark, so I head back on the smaller trail quickly, wanting to hit the main trail before nightfall.
Nearly an hour later, I make it to the clearing for the lake and see that it's now deserted. Knowing where the trail is from here, I decide to sit next to the boulder for a little while and enjoy the tranquility of the water. I'm quickly lost again in thoughts of this strange Alice girl. I don't know why she keeps being the center of my thoughts, but for the first time in a while, I have no aversion to the mental intruder. I mean it does freak me out that this girl keeps coming to mind when I know absolutely nothing about her, but at the same time, something about her initial persona makes me not care. I mean, I was still cautious during our run-in, simply because I don't know her. And I have no idea if she has an ulterior motive or something of the sort. Yet, I can't shake her from my thoughts.
I guess I just have to be careful while I figure it out. And be on my guard until I'm completely sure that she's trust worthy.