A/N: I now present chapter 26 of Static. We're about a quarter into the story, which I find exciting. I own no part of the Twilight Saga. Enjoy.

XXVI.

i don't like how serious they take themselves
i've always been me, i guess i know myself

"Thanks so much, Eric," Kim said, smiling to herself. "I'll be back to work the day after I get home. You have a good holiday, too. Mmm, bye."

She hung up, and then she beamed at Leah like she'd just won a million dollars.

"So it's official?" Leah asked, smiling back.

"It's official."

"Awesome."

Leah, Kim, and Emily would all be getting away to Seaside, Oregon for the Independence Day weekend (and a little longer), and Kim finally came through to request the time off from her job at the gym. She usually took forever with these kinds of things, but as long as she came through, everything would be alright.

It was a calm, still day at First Beach, but Leah was buzzing with excitement. Down here, she got this feeling like everything could happen, and all at once. She wasn't as pessimistic now as she was solely curious. This summer had been full of peculiarities and it wasn't even July yet. She didn't know how to feel about that.

Just about everybody was at the beach. Everyone was so bored and broke but the day was so nice and sunny that it would be pointless to be bored and broke indoors, alone.

Leah's eyes scanned across the sand—everybody was here except for Emily, who would meet up with them later. And Bella, of course, but she was a peculiarity on her own. Leah didn't know for sure what had happened between Bella and Jacob; she'd only heard tons of stories. That was all these people were good for: gossip. It was all he said/she said at this point, and as much as Leah didn't care, she still wanted to know. Had her pathetic threat back at the movies worked? It must have.

Claire was at the beach, too, and she must have heard Leah and Kim talking about Seaside because soon enough, she padded over to the driftwood tree in her lime green flip-flops. Leah couldn't do anything to fully prevent Claire from coming to First Beach to Quil anymore. It had now been a little over a year since Leah first found out Claire and Quil were dating, and the best she could do was watch over her since her mother sure as shit wasn't doing anything. She had relapsed again sometime last spring, and Claire was in the permanent care of her and Emily's grandmother, who was getting weaker with each passing day.

"Are you guys going somewhere?" Claire probed, chomping on her gum.

"Seaside," Kim replied, looking up from her cell phone. She was checking out a list of things to do there, and Leah was looking thoughtfully over her shoulder.

"I know. I just wanted to see if you'd lie to me."

"Okay, then, Claire," Leah said, brushing her off. She swore the girl had one of the brattiest attitudes she had ever seen.

"I wanna go," Claire pried. "It sounds like a lot of fun."

"Trust me," Leah said, "we'll be having tons of fun."

"I wanna go," Claire repeated. "My boyfriend thinks I'm old enough to go."

"Hmm," Leah mused. "I wonder what your boyfriend thinks about your braces."

"What about them?"

Leah just shook her head and rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, Bella popped up at the beach. She had to have been as bored and broke as everyone else. She didn't know where else to go. The aftermath of her and Jacob was still raw, and she realized that all the people she had acquainted with were people she knew through Jacob. She didn't have any real friends—they were all his friends, and she and Jacob weren't on good terms anymore. Bella had chosen nobody but Jacob; she had chosen to be fake, and now that she wasn't with him anymore, she had to fall back on what she knew. She was a wanderer, but she wasn't at all independent or okay with being alone.

Desperate, Bella sat with Leah and Kim upon seeing them. Even when she was alone, she felt somewhat safe around them—even Leah. Somehow, she felt that they wouldn't abandon her. She wasn't usually one to initiate camaraderie (especially that of the female kind), but she was down for anything at this point. And she was choosing her friends this time. She was desperate, but she was strong.

Bella had only sat with them for three minutes before they decided to leave, though. They had plans to make. Big plans. Seaside plans. And Emily was probably waiting for them at Kim's house, anyway.

Kim felt bad for leaving Bella, though, of course, so when Leah had already gone to the car, Kim turned back to Bella.

"Hey," she said. "Do you wanna come with us? We're all just gonna sit around my house and order Chinese takeout, but it'll probably be more fun than being here."

Bella gave a polite smile. "Sure," she said.

"Cool. You can go ahead and follow my car."

"Thanks."

"Kim," Leah said, staring into the side mirror of the car, "why is that ugly-ass truck still following us?"

"Oh, that's Bella," Kim replied. "I forgot to tell you, but I invited her over to my house to hang with us."

"Oh my Go—"

"I know," Kim interrupted before the complaint fest could begin. "But she's been through a lot lately."

"You sound just like my mom."

"Good. She's always right."

Leah scoffed.

"I still don't know what you have against Bella," Kim said. "What makes her so different from the rest of us?"

Leah shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. She just strikes me as the type of white girl to get angry one day about the censorship of women's nipples and pray about how we are all one race—the human race—but wear a big-ass, fake-ass headdress to some stoner music festival the following weekend while calling her fellow whites the 'N' word without any regards to how wrong any of that is. You feel me?"

"So, anyway," Kim said, completely disregarding Leah's criticism, "Em's getting drinks, right?"

"She's getting her hair done," Leah replied with a sigh, "and a septum piercing, too, 'cause she thinks she's a badass. She said she'd get drinks on the way back, but I don't think I want her to."

Kim's voice remained bright. "Is she still having problems?"

"I don't know. I don't wanna find out, either. I just hope she's been taking care of herself."

"Me too, Lee. Me, too."

The night was exactly as relaxed as everybody expected it to be. Emily arrived at Kim's house pretty late and without drinks, since her appointments had taken so long, but it was totally worth it. Her hair was now a dark red that made her skin look warmer, and she had a septum piercing that gave her an entirely new edge. She looked incredible.

Since Emily hadn't supplied drinks and Kim really did want to have some, she brought out a bottle of wine from her parents' cellar immediately after ordering Chinese takeout. They wouldn't notice it was gone. Leah stayed away and tried to make Emily stay away, too, but Kim and Bella dove right in. Based on this common interest alone, Bella knew they were going to be good friends.

Emily had brought over her laptop, and the girls huddled around her on Kim's bedroom floor as they looked online for things to do in Seaside. Bella hadn't been invited on the trip, and she hadn't taken any offense to it, but she still wanted to help. Planned trips were fun. Unplanned ones were better.

They hadn't found much online when Kim laid down on her soft white carpet and sighed deeply. "This is so depressing," she said.

Leah ignored her. "You know, Em," she said, "I'm so down for feeding the seals."

"That sounds like fun, huh?" Emily asked.

"Yeah."

Bella gave her attention to Kim. "Is Seaside not your first choice or something?" she asked.

"We wanted to go to Venice at first," Kim said, "but we don't have the money."

"Well, you have money, Kim," Emily said.

"I have, like, forty dollars," Kim replied. "My parents have already put in so much for Seaside."

"Mine, too."

"So you see my dilemma. We hardly even have enough money to go."

Emily closed her laptop and laid down on the floor, propping her head up with her right hand as she faced Bella and Kim. "You know why I wanna get out so bad?" she asked. "Go, like, really far away? 'Cause my parents always leave me alone. They don't check in on me, and they don't even talk to me. If I went far away, it wouldn't matter."

"You can already do that," Leah said. "You're twenty."

"I can't do anything if I'm broke."

"And, anyway," Leah went on, "I wish my parents—my mom, I mean—would leave me alone. She's always on my ass whenever she's home. I need to get far away. I don't think Seaside is gonna cut it."

"I'd pick Venice every time," Kim said, her voice dreamy and somewhere far away. "I bet the sun doesn't even shine in Seaside."

They were all silent for a while until Bella finally spoke up. "You guys mean Venice Beach, right?" she asked. "In California?"

"We clearly aren't talking about Italy," Leah said with a roll of her eyes.

"Thanks for the clarification," Bella replied. "I can get you guys to Venice, though. I have a plan, but it'll only work if I can go with you guys."

"We've all put money into this," Emily said. "We already have a rental house booked and everything. I think you're a little too late."

"C'mon, listen," Bella said.

Leah didn't give her a chance. "No offense, Bella, but nobody asked you. I'd say you're outnumbered."

Bella knit her eyebrows, frustrated, but not willing to give up. "I thought we were all friends here. Can you just hear me out for a second? Because I think it's a good plan and you'll all thank me for it."

"I bet your plan is wonderful," Leah said in a nonchalant tone, "but who said we want to bring you to Venice? You don't know us like that."

"Speak for yourself, Lee," Kim said.

"So what the fuck am I even here for?" Bella demanded, her voice a little louder.

"I don't know—maybe you could give me a fucking clue because as far as I've noticed, you've only been drinking all the wine," Leah said, her voice hard.

"Calm down, guys," Emily said.

"Bella, will you shut up if I hear your little plan?" Leah asked.

"Gladly."

"Then shoot."

Bella told everybody her master plan to get to the promised land—also known as Venice Beach—and it left them all with dropped jaws and wide eyes.

"You're crazy," Emily said.

"Yeah, I think I'd much rather feed the seals in Seaside," Leah said, nodding.

"What are you so afraid of?" Bella asked, her voice simple and low.

"The law enforcement," Leah replied. "Being arrested. Becoming someone's prison bitch. Cops and inmates like white girls like you, but not girls like me, and we both know this."

"Who says we're gonna get caught?"

"Who says we're gonna get away with it?"

"I say we're gonna get away with it."

"Bella, do you actually hear the words that come out of your own mouth? Do you listen to yourself speak?"

"I'd have to ask you the same thing, Lee, because there's no fucking way you know how cowardly you are. You have nothing to lose." Bella gestured to Kim and Emily. "We have nothing to lose."

"We have everything to lose," Leah said.

"Like what—a college scholarship? Oh, wait."

How did she even know that? Bella was fucking ruthless. "Let's say we did follow through with this plan," Leah began. "Why should we bring you to Venice with us?"

"It's my plan, isn't it?"

"It's a stupid one."

"I guess you can stay in Seaside and feed the fucking seals if that's what your heart desires, then." Bella turned to Kim. "Isn't it a good plan?"

"It's not realistic," Kim said, "but it's good. I'm down."

Leah glared at Kim. "Don't be dumb."

"I'm not. It's crazy, but it's good. I think we deserve it."

"What in the hell makes you think that?"

"Lee," Emily said, "we've got nothing to lose."

"So you're in too, Em?" Leah demanded. "Really?"

"It's really not that bad of an idea," Bella said with a smug look on her face. "What's it gonna be, Leah? Are you gonna feed the seals or actually do something with your life?"

Leah stared at Bella long and hard for a while, hoping to turn her to stone. It didn't work. So she just sighed and nodded.

"It's whatever."

Kim was the lightest lightweight in the history of lightweights. She got a little too tipsy a little too fast and fell asleep on the couch in her bedroom after dancing and singing about going to Venice. She was a cute drunk. And she was funny.

Bella knew for a fact that she didn't want to be the one to carry Kim around in Venice, but she was such a sweet girl that she had to tonight. Kim needed the support more than anyone else, and Bella had a feeling they were going to be close.

Leah fell asleep soon after Kim, but she hadn't had a drop of alcohol. She was just tired. Bella decided that being so mean took up a lot of energy, and Leah must have been fuming at her the entire night to have fallen asleep at eleven thirty.

This left Emily and Bella, with the former girl typing away at her laptop with the latter girl watching. Emily had drunk a bit of wine (after three glasses, Bella just stopped counting), so she didn't care that much that Bella was watching her write.

"You'd write a lot better if you didn't drink," Bella said. And you've been drinking a lot. Why does nobody care enough to stop you?

Emily took another sip of wine. "Shut the hell up."

"You know it's true."

And Emily did know, but she didn't care. She didn't despise Bella in the same way that Leah did, but why should she give her the benefit of knowing the truth? Were they even friends?

She kept typing, her long, freshly manicured nails clicking away. Even though she'd thrown away her physical notes from her novel months ago, back in November, she had gotten back to writing it. After reading The Bell Jar and The Awakening, she was feeling all types of inspired. And that was all part of the process: create and destroy and create and destroy and create. Emily was an entirely different person every time she restarted. She didn't know how to feel about it. She didn't mind change, but she did mind not knowing what she had lost and what she would continue to lose as long as she kept changing. Could she ever stop it?

Emily eventually got tired of writing, but Bella stayed awake by watching her scroll through a type of website. It was mostly just pictures. Emily liked pictures of deserts. The pictures reminded Bella of Phoenix. Even though it wasn't home to her—since she didn't have one—she missed it now.

"Do you like the desert?" Bella wondered.

Emily nodded. "Yeah," she said. "But I've never been."

"I'm gonna take you to the Phoenix desert someday, then. I think you could write something really good there."

"Then it's a date."

A/N: In response to some of you guys' reviews, there will be retribution for these characters. These kids are so, so resilient. I promise. This is an ensemble cast piece, and I promise that not everybody is hopeless.

Up next: more feminine camaraderie (with a hint of hedonism, naturally) and what it takes to achieve it.

Thanks as always,

HS