Emmett POV
It was date night, but not his date night, so he was waiting for a phone call. He and Bella were going to cause some havoc and build some levels tonight! She was slow in coming along, but they'd been playing for a month, once or twice a week. He had his computer all set, and his phone fully charged, with the charger moved into the office. He was ready to go.
She was a little bit hopeless, clearly not that great at these games yet, but he had plans to build her up to a respectable level.
"She isn't one of your characters, you can't build her up." Edward grumbled and Emmett shook his head. Edward was still a bit of a dick about Emmett's new human BFF.
The phone rang and Emmett sat up quickly, while Edward hissed and then left for hunting. He didn't even want to hear Bella's voice. It was his way to pout about not getting his way. He was such a baby.
Emmett was almost to the phone when Rosalie dashed under him and stole the phone from him. He stared at his wife as she grinned at him and pulled it to her ear. "Hello." She said as if she hadn't narrowly missed wrestling for the phone. "Oh Bella." Rosalie smirked at him. "I didn't know it was game night."
"Rosalie?" Bella sounded uncertain, but humans weren't always good about identifying sounds.
"Yes, so it snowed here, did you hear?" Rosalie's teasing smile was sexy and promising and it had horrible timing, because it was game night. Emmett shook his head at the cruelty of his wife to give him looks like that now.
"No, I didn't know." Bella stammered out and Emmett held out his hand for Rosalie to give him the phone. His wife just turned his back to him.
"Have you ever seen snow Bella?" Rosalie spoke more softly and Emmett lowered his hand as he decided to let Rosalie talk for a little while.
"Ah, well, I live in Phoenix. It doesn't snow here." He could almost hear the human blushing over the phone with the way she spoke, it was funny, and he'd bet money she was red faced now.
"It can be beautiful. You should make a point to see it some time." Rose spoke even more softly and Emmett felt a hint of a smile come to his lips as he saw his wife reaching out to his BFF, she didn't do that for humans, it was so sweet and kinda sexy.
"I'm sure it is." Bella muttered and then her voice was a little stronger. "Ah, How have you been doing?"
"How cute, she's trying to chat with Rosie." Emmett teased his wife while Rose seemed to be thinking of an answer.
"Well, keeping my big lump in line has been a full time job this week." Rose answered and he could see a hint of a smile on her lips. "How about you?"
"Oh okay." The smile slowly slipped from Emmett's lips at the hint of a negative tone in her voice. He heard Alice lean forward in her chair behind him as well, and Rosalie turned to look into his eyes. "Nothing special ever happens over here."
"Sorry to hear that." Rosalie said slowly. "I hope things get better for you." The sound wouldn't register to a human, but it was clear Bella wasn't in the best of moods. She needed cheering up. Rose handed him the phone.
"So I'll call you back from my computer and we'll kick some hero butt." He offered with a smile, thinking that should cheer her up.
"That's the plan." She hung up and he put the house phone down as well.
….
Bella waited for the call back patiently, but she was surprised she had to wait a full five minutes. Still, she set him up on speaker as soon as he called and they were up and ready to roll. She hadn't really felt like playing any games today, but she'd made arrangements and she'd forced herself to keep her promise.
They were in the game and playing when Emmett appeared to clear his throat. "So how's school going?" He asked and Bella frowned as he did .
"Same old." She muttered, but then cursed herself for it. If she wanted him to talk to her about anything, to be able to give his opinion on whether she should move in with her father for example, she needed to be more than a gaming buddy. "I'm not exactly popular Emmett, I keep my head down and make it through the day."
"I can't see why you wouldn't be popular, you're pretty and pretty cool." He spoke softer and Bella appreciated it. The looks weren't hers, but she knew she'd been lucky with the body she took over, it could have had a lot of problems, but this 'Bella' was healthy and pretty. Being so young was a huge adjustment though.
"Thanks."
There was a pause and it fit with their game playing, because they had to concentrate for a bit. "Are they picking on you?" He sounded concerned.
"Someone your size probably doesn't have to learn this, but that's what keeping your head down is about." She gave a humorless smirk even though he wouldn't see it. "You take the short way between classes, you eat in the home ec room, you keep your eyes focused in the halls, and you pretend you don't hear anything they say. You never make eye contact and you stick around where teachers tend to be, and you just get through the day."
"Shit." She heard something crunch right before he said that. "Bella, that's no way to live." His Character stopped moving and she stopped her own as well. Then his character was jerking just a little. Bella guessed his mouse was crushed.
"Oh, I know, but" She stopped, even though she knew they already knew. Carlisle had to have told them, because it wasn't normal how they were treating her. They were treating her better though, so it was kind of okay. "They call me swiss cheese head, and I'm the most interesting target the monsters have ever seen." She sighed heavily. "Apparently everything old is new again."
"Damn, I need to reboot." Emmett muttered and Bella watched Captain Buttcrack disappear.
"Computer problems?" She asked flatly.
"My mouse died." Emmett told her and then there was a small smack noise. "But that isn't important." He spoke more quickly and Bella just shook her head. "It's not right that they treat you like this. Have you talked to anyone? Or you could punch one of the bitches out, that might teach them."
Bella, despite herself, found that idea amusing. "I'm not intimidating Emmett, and I'm not strong, I can't 'teach' anyone anything. Besides, fighting is not going to help me."
"And telling?" Bella could hear his computer power down in the background.
"Emmett, there is something wrong with me." She admitted, but she found she didn't want to lie. He knew the popular and normal story, but she hadn't told him. She was supposed to assume a doctor wouldn't tell his family about a patient, because technically Carlisle never should have. With psychics, empaths, and telepaths in the house though, how much would that matter? "Everyone in my life is a stranger to me. This summer I woke up from an accident and I didn't know anyone." All true. "They sent me home with a stranger that they told me was my mother. It isn't going well. That woman wants her daughter back, and I can't give it to her."
"Aw man." He stammered out semi-convincingly. "That really sucks."
"Yeah, it does. She's dragged me to far too many doctors, and now she wants me to see a psychologist to see why I'm blocking my own progress," she quoted and then she sighed. "I really don't want to waste my time once or twice a week talking about how I don't remember things. I'm starting to feel like she wants me to apologize for surviving, because it's so hard for her to live this way." Her voice held too much bitterness and whining and she knew it. "You ready to play?" She said, because she didn't want to be too whiny and it was getting there.
They'd managed to play for another hour without saying much when Bella sighed, she needed answers, and she'd been wanting to visit Charlie for spring break. Her only hold out was wondering if it was safe and she needed to know soon if she was going to try and nag Renee into letting her go.
She spoke slowly, trying to think this out. "Maybe I should ask Charlie if I can visit him again, I could meet your family while I'm there and we could do something."
"You do that, you do it right now and then I'll show you around town and where all the fun is as soon as you get here."
"And I could meet your family?" Bella asked again, just checking to see if maybe things were better than she'd suspected. He'd never even said Edward's name, maybe he was still living in Alaska or something and she was worrying about him for no reason.
"Yeah, it could be great, you could come over and play on the PlayStation with me, in person." Emmett sounded pretty excited about that idea. Bella was excited that he seemed to think it was safe enough, even though the idea of actually visiting his house was scary and she may try and get out of it. Maybe this could work.
If Spring Break went well, she'd make a decision about the move, but not before. She didn't want to crush her hopes too soon.
She'd fight if Renee suggested they use drugs, if it truly got to that point she'd use the money she was earning around here to jump on a plane and deal with what she found on the other side when she got there, but for now, maybe the Psychologist could help control Renee's craziness about this.
…..
"I don't see why she wants to go to Forks, she hates Forks." Renee was talking to the Psychologist even though she was supposed to be talking to her. The exercise was for them to talk to each other. "She's always hated that dreary, rainy town as much as I do." Bella already had permission and the plane ticket. They'd even told the Psychologist she wasn't going to be there next week, because it was finally time to get a break from Renee.
"Why don't you ask her?" The Psychologist motioned toward Bella and Bella nodded to the woman.
"You hate Forks Bella, you always have." Renee looked at her, but she was tense and kept glancing at the Psychologist in the room as if making a point. Bella didn't miss that what Renee said wasn't technically a question.
"I'm not a fan of the weather, but here my skin is too fair to be outside." Bella was determined to be calm and rationale and see if this stupid session would help with anything. Psychologists in her past life hadn't really been useful, but here she could see Renee needed the help even if that wasn't why Renee was here. "I love being at Charlie's. He doesn't make me feel like dying would have been better than living like this." Her voice was cold. "He doesn't treat me, every single day, as if I'm broken and lazy for not waking up with all the memories you want me to have. The kids there don't all know I'm 'different', and I actually have friends there." Renee had ragged on her about friends in the last session and Bella had admitted that she did have friends, just not from here at that time.
"He doesn't push you to heal Bella," Renee said as if it wasn't a good thing.
"He still loves me even though I'm like this." Bella spoke slowly. "You don't like me Renee, and I don't really like you." Renee played up looking like she'd just been slapped. "It's no secret." Bella shook her head. "You've been neglecting me since I was a little girl from what I can see, and in order to have food on the table and electricity, your Bella had to grow up and take care of you and everything and she did it without a single complaint, because she was YOUR babysitter." Renee looked extremely uncomfortable and she opened her mouth to try and interrupt, but the rules in this room said no interrupting, so Bella talked more firmly even as Renee tried to contradict her. "I was with you a week, having lost every last memory of my life and you were demanding I take care of you, find your clothes, look for that bill, I didn't even know my middle name and you still needed a caretaker. You couldn't even do your work, actually, what being a parent is supposed to do, for a week. I had to start doing it and I don't just do it with a little indulgent smile and suck it up like you're used to and it pisses you off. I'm making you treat me like a teenager or pay me like an employee and you resent the hell out of that, I can tell, it isn't hard. You never did tell me at what age I became responsible for taking care of myself and you. You are and as far as I can see have always been a bad mother. It isn't hard for Charlie to do better. He is far from perfect, but he is still better."
"How do you feel about what Bella's just told you Renee?" The Psychologist urged when Renee just sat there staring daggers at Bella.
"My Bella would never hurt me like this." Renee's face was red and her eyes glassy and yet still angry.
"As far as I can see, this is part of the problem Renee." The Psychologist had proven a few times to not be a complete waste of space. "You need to deal with Bella as she is today." Bella could see in Renee's eyes at that moment that the Psychologist experiment was over and they weren't going to be coming back. It was one more doctor not saying what Renee wanted her to say.
They left in silence and Bella watched as Renee drove with jerky motions that belied the fake calm she was trying to project. Renee never said a word to her on the entire drive back to the house. Bella let the silence hold, because she was more than a little upset that yet another doctor on her side was going to be let go, and worried about what Renee was going to do now.
Bella slipped inside the house made her way to the kitchen to cook. It was part of the agreed upon chores, so even though she was in no mood, she did what she was supposed to. She was part way through making the meal when she heard Renee's voice getting louder from the office.
"I can't do this anymore!" Was easy to make out. The words became a bit of a mumble from the kitchen, but really she shouldn't hear them at all, so Bella shook her head. Renee was yelling into the phone.
Bella put the dinner out, but she ate her own quickly before going upstairs to knock on the office door. The door whipped open when she did that.
"Dinner's ready. I'm going to do my homework now." She didn't have any homework.
Renee stared at her. "You're moving to Forks." Her words were delivered quickly. "Your father is going to enroll you in school there."
"I guess I can skip my homework then." Bella said as straight-faced as she could.
"Bella, I just told you that you're moving to Forks!" Renee's face reddened as her voice raised. "And that's all you can say?"
"Thank you, I didn't want to leave there the first time I visited." Bella muttered and then turned to her room. Her flight was Saturday morning, and now she had a day to take care of a move.
Once the door was closed Bella let out a gust of air she'd been holding in and her hands started to shake. She wanted to move, but this trip was supposed to tell her if it was safe to do it. Renee jumped the gun and caused her problems yet again. The decision was made, and Bella couldn't make herself argue against it now. Not when she really wanted to go. Renee never planned anything out, and after this it would no longer be Bella's problem. Right now it was very much her problem though.
On Friday, Bella had to go to school to return her things and arrange for her student file to make it to Forks high. She took the bus in to do that, with a forged note, because Renee left the house early for a change probably so she wouldn't have to see Bella. Bella skipped her first class to take care of it, and then was forced to walk to a city bus stop and ask them what bus she'd need to get somewhat close to back to the house. She was back home by ten in the morning and she started to go through her bedroom for what was going with her. She couldn't afford to waste a day in school, when it was her last day to pack up everything.
It was a little hard to do but Bella asked for help, without a car and with a time limit Bella walked up to the neighbor's yard when she saw the older woman living there was outside gardening and asked for a favor. It felt incredibly awkward, but Darlene, as she learned the woman was called, drove Bella to the UPS store to buy moving supplies.
By the time Renee came home, the woman was stunned to see a large stack of packed boxes in the entryway. Bella was taking anything she might need, because she wasn't wasting money on this move, she needed the things and Renee was the one who was paying for the shipping. It was cheaper for her to take everything that way. "UPS will pick them up tomorrow morning." Bella told her and went back to cooking her last dinner there. It was probably a little petty of her, but she enjoyed the shocked look on Renee's face as the woman realized how much Bella got done in a single day.
….