Chapter 11 : Roadtrip

I barely slept last night. I'm not sure what unsettled me more, Victoria's visit, or the walk down memory lane she forced on me. I mean, she was in my back yard. Charlie was sleeping less than a few meters away and there was a vampire outside.

I was tired and moody and really happy that I'd get out of Forks for a few days. Thankfully Victoria didn't kill me and left. I have no idea where she is and I can't say I'm not happy she is not here.

I took my school bag downstairs and the sac-voyage with my clothes for the trip. A smaller messenger bag for my laptop. Mike and I wouldn't be jogging today so after a nice hot lengthy shower to calm my nerves I got dressed for school. Jeans, a simple white tank top with a small print on and my faithful sneakers. Dad would come pick me up at lunch and we'd be on the road.

A bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee later and I was out the door. Mike picked me up for school. Angie, Ben, Mike and were together all day. At lunch I grabbed a yogurt and a pack of baby carrots, gave my friends a hug, promised to email them everyday, took my schoolwork and went to parking lot where dad was in my car.

We were on the road for about an hour and the silence was too much. I swear you could hear the wind outside rushing. Three days like this? Oh boy!

We made a quick stop in Seattle for coffee and a quick visit to the bathroom. The silence in the car was seriously getting to me. Yes, both I and dad are quiet types but this is too much.

It was my turn to drive after that stop. I could feel Charlie sneaking glances at me and I felt the need to say something, anything, but my mouth wasn't cooperating.

"If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn?"

Charlie opened his mouth to answer in reflex but then obviously thought about it better and turned to look at me with a wtf expression on his face. I shrugged and shook my head trying to say 'it was the first thing that came to mind' when he and I both broke into crazy laughter. I was laughing so hard tears were coming out of my eyes and dad was folded in two in his laughter.

"And it only took us almost 6 hours" he managed to choke out through his laughter and that sent us back to laughing.

"Could be worse" I mustered "It is us after all"

After that we struck something ridiculously close to conversation. About the road trip. Apparently my genius dad in his hurry to pick me up and leave forgot the map. We had reached Spokane by then. I shook my head and pulled to the side of the road and suggested we stayed there for the night because 1) I was tired could barely keep my eyes open, 2) we were both starving, 3) we needed gas and 4) We needed to find a map.

Thankfully a gas station was near and while dad asked for a motel I asked for a diner. There was one near and less than an hour later we were both in a dinky tiny little room with 2 double beds sleeping soundly. Or as soundly you can sleep next to a snoring machine. Note to self: buy ear plugs.

Next morning came way too soon and it was strangely warm. I tried to wake up dad and failed, took a shower, tried to wake up dad and failed, got dressed in shorts, a bra tank top and tried to wake up dad. When I failed again I turned the radio on my cell really loud, covered my ears and pressed it to his ear. A few seconds later Charlie shouted and jumped up with his gun in hand alarm. I turned the music off, smiled angelically and said

"Good morning daddy"

I got a growl in response and dad felt his way to the bathroom. Laughing I did my hair and repacked leaving out a change of clothes for dad.

He looked a lot more human as he emerged from the bathroom, grabbed his clothes and went to take a shower. I let him know I'd be in the same diner we went last night to order breakfast and wait him there. He grumbled something and I left. Threw our bags in the trunk.

I ordered two large cups of coffee, pancakes for both of us and turned on my laptop. I was awake enough to remember to charge it last night as well as our cell phones. I emailed Angela and Mike telling them about our first day on the road, and called mom. She wasn't home but Phil were and after letting him know where we where and our immediate plans we suggested going to an online map and letting it find the best route for our trip. I did that and thanked him.

"Morning Bells"

"Morning dad, i ordered breakfast"

"Oh good"

We didn't talk much during breakfast. I only showed him the site I found and decided we would get a map and mark the route. Dad paid the bill and tried to call Billy (who didn't answer AGAIN) and checked the station to see how things went. I found a grocery store to stock up on water, gums and earplugs. I also got a map and marked the route. After that we were on our way.

Thankfully the interaction was fluent today as we talked about the small towns we passed and made fun on their names. On one town called Three Forks we actually made jokes on who had the name Forks first and if we were going to find more cities in that name style on our way. We decided to stretch our legs a bit when we reached a park.

The park was big with a hell of a lot trees.

"It's like Forks" dad exclaimed.

"Maybe that's why they named it Three Forks, Perhaps thy wanted to name it Tree Forks"

According to Charlie's confused face I was sure sarcasm would not make this easier.

We decided to take the tour about the wildlife instead of the one that would teach us how to catch and kill a butterfly. The tour was fun and actually good. I took photos of the animals we saw and dad took a few of me when a couple butterflies decided to sit on me instead of flowers.

"This would happen a lot when you were little you know"

"What?"

"This, butterflies sitting on you"

"Really?" I responded with a smile. Maybe they were too afraid of Edward to do that in the meadow

"Yeah, I used to call you my baby flower"

At that we both blushed and looked elsewhere and went on with the tour. After picking up some memorabilia we were on our way. Less than an hour dad stopped again. This time on a sign about a cat zoo.

"A cat zoo?"

"Yep"

"Ok, let's go dad"

'A cat zoo? Seriously?'

"Promise not to let me get eaten?"

"Of course Bells"

And we entered. We decided to go see the cats. Cats, not the cute little kittens I thought. Lions, tigers, those cats!

A little girl and her dad were right in front of us. The poor man was struggling with a 3yrs old girl on one hand, a little boy on the other and another boy on his shoulders.

"Daddy look" they kept screaming and I giggled. I leaned closer to Charlie and asked if I was like that in their age.

"Thank god no" he said and looked down to see the little girl holding his hand now and pointing to a cage with 3 baby tigers huddling together in a corner.

"They are so cute daddy"

"They sure are daddy"

I replied in a baby voice and after a look Charlie then alerted her dad he lost a kid. The poor man looked lost as Charlie helped him to get all kids under control and we were off to take pictures.

We had lunch in a diner near a bird museum where I put my foot down on not seeing and we were back in the car with me on the wheel.

Dad decided to catch some z's and I put on my mp3 earphones as not to wake him up.

Apparently I was speeding or something because less than an hour later a police cruiser was signaling me to move over. I thought about waking Charlie up but changed my mind. In the pace we were going there is no way we would make it in 3 days anyway.

I took off the ear phones and was greeted with a booming snoring.

The officer was at my window at motioned me to lower it. 'At your own risk I thought'

"yes officer?"

The man jumped back at Charlie's snoring. I only smiled angelically.

He wanted to check my papers and as I moved to take them from the mini cupboard I must have bumped dad 'cause he woke up

"Sorry dad"

He moved to sit up, rubbed his eyes and saw the officer. In a flash dad was gone and the police chief was back.

"Who are you? What is going on, were you speeding Bella?"

"Not that I know of"

Dad jumped out of the car, showing his police ID, and started talking to the officer. Not wanting to be left out I followed his lead. The officer said that my tail lights were blinking and actually only wanted to warn me. So we made a note to get them checked when we reached our night stop and left.

Our next big stop was for a late lunch in a town called crow agency. There was a re enactment of the "little bighorn battlefield". That was interesting. The costumes, the colored smoke they used instead of shots, amazing. We talked about it over lunch and we were on our way since we had many stops already.

We were passing a small town by the name of Lame Deer when we knew we had to stop. Of course there was nowhere to get my taillights checked so we just had dinner, guess what - deer and continued to a nearby bigger town to sleep and let my car get checked. So it was in another small motel room I did a part of my homework, mailed my friends and slept.

Next morning I woke up by dad singing in the shower, disoriented. I got clothes out and mirroring the previous days I went for beige shorts, and an aqua bra top with my faithful sneakers, hair in a French braid, sunglasses and purse. After dad came out, he went to check my car and wait for me at the diner. After showering, settling the bill and calling mom who wanted to know every little detail I met up with dad and a little time later we were on our way. Thinking it might be better to speed our travel we decided to reach Indianapolis before stopping for the night. 18hours. we could do that

A little after we entered South Dakota we saw a city named Charles city. That was just too good to pass so we stopped for lunch and to look around. There even was a law enforcement museum. Dad's eyes were big as saucers, I couldn't say no to that face, not to mention I couldn't feel my butt from driving so long. We decided to get hotdogs on the road and went to see the Law Enforcement Museum.

As we followed the tired and bored cop that acted as a tour guide Charlie was running after him with the expression of the cat that just ate the canary. And dragged me along. At one point we were told that the cops in 1929 were riding Harley Davidson, in the idea of Charlie on a Harley sent me to a fit on giggles, at dad disapproving glare I giggled even harder and leaned to tell him I'd never seen him on one and his mouth started to twitch. The moment he was ready to start laughing I reminded him

"We are in a museum Charlie, shush".

"Now that is an intimidating cruiser"

When we saw the first car cruiser in 1949.

"You can walk faster than that dad, after you lose the beer belly"

I added the last part quietly. Finally we reached the photo of the first police woman. A little while later we reached the ancient cop props. Aka handcuffs and other devices. I shivered while Charlie was lapping at it like a hungry kitten.

After the tour was done we decided to walk around in the town with a cup of iced coffee. Wow the town is 7 times the size of Forks. We checked out the local theatre, the park with the gazebo when I started to nod of standing. Then we were back on the road. I dosed off and woke up only when Charlie woke me up outside a motel

"To go to sleep"

"I am already sleeping"

I whined. To that he grabbed me and led me to my bed. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't even kick my shoes of.

I woke up the next day feeling fresh and well rested. Of course I had no idea where we were. I showered, got dressed in a dress over yoga shorts. I sat back in bed to mail mom, Angie and Mike. Dad groaned and woke up slowly.

"Morning dad"

"Morning bells"

"Where are we?"

"Indiapolis"

"How much longer?"

"About 10 hours"

I groaned and fell back in bed.

"Why didn't we fly again?"

Dad only chuckled and went to shower. His cell rang and I picked it up when I saw it was by Chief what's-her-name.

"Hello?"

"Hi, is Chief Swan there?"

"In the shower, I'm his daughter, can I help you?"

She seemed a woman of a few words as she asked me where we were and when we'd be there. I made plans to call her as soon as we arrived to meet her in front of a local hotel. She also said that today there was a gathering of all the townspeople to elect the Miss Mystic Falls for a reason I have no idea about. Formal outfit. She'd meet us for a very late lunch and to take us to the party (?). We were supposed to meet up at 4pm. We needed to hurry.

"Hey dad, I have bad news and worse news."

"Bad news"

"We need to be in front of the hotel at 4pm to meet Chief Forbes"

"Worse news"

"There is a town gathering that requires formal dress code. Do we have party clothes with us?"

"Great! No I didn't pack any"

"So we're skipping breakfast. You're gonna go get rid of the mustache and get a haircut and I'll go shopping for the gathering".

I planned a smile and brushed of dad's scowl about his mustache.

"Dad you look like a redneck. In the bad sense. You really want to look like one when you're there to guide them?"

I must have said something right because 10 minutes later we asked the reception about a hair salon and a clothing store. I went to the nearest decent looking store and got a grayish dress for me and run to meet dad at the hair salon. And it was a good thing, he was trying to talk his way out of the haircut. He stopped struggling when he saw me and simply accepted his fate. Feeling like the Alice on a Barbie Bella episode I let him do what ever he wanted but put my foot on the mustache. In the end he agreed to get rid of it and just keep a slight less than 5 o' clock stubble. He actually looked good. Of course Charlie wouldn't let that pass and it was my turn to sit on the dreaded chair for a manicure and a hair-do. After that we were back in the car speeding to make our rendezvous.

"You look good dad; I've never seen you with out the trademark mustache before"

"I feel good too bells. I haven't shaved it since I met your mother"

He said touching it. Keeping one eye on the road I took my camera and snapped a quick photo of him

"What? You look really good and I liked your expression"

We were on the clock so we skipped lunch only stopping for bathroom visits and coffee. In the end we actually made it. We crossed the city limit and found a news stand to ask where the Mystic hotel was. We went inside and got our rooms. We took showers and got dressed in the formal clothes and went back downstairs to meet the chief.

"Chief Swan?