Bella, Charlie, and I are drive back to Charlie's in the truck since Harry was the one who drove him to Billy's. He asked about our day and Bella told him mostly the truth - that we'd gone with Jacob to look at parts and then we watched him work in his garage.
"You think you two will visit again any time soon?" Charlie asks.
"Tomorrow after school and don't worry, we'll take our homework with us," Bella says.
I slump at the sound of the word 'school,' and even more so at the word 'homework.' I am not bad at school, I just prefer not to go and sometimes, I would be seen skipping classes. Bella was the perfect attendance daughter, with good grades and advanced classes.
"You be sure to do that," he orders. "And enjoy your first day, Dani."
I grumble, and they both laugh quietly.
"Oh!" I say. "Mom wanted you to get back to emailing her, if you can."
"Okay, I can do that tonight," Bella replies.
—*-
A muffled scream reaches my ears but this time, I am already awake lying in bed and staring at the ceiling. Dim morning light filters through the hallway into my small room. At least she didn't start screaming until morning. It's not a complete improvement but it's better than her waking in the middle of the night with fresh tears on her face.
Kicking the blanket off, I roll off my bed and head to Bella's room. Opening the door, she looks over her shoulder at me and I half expected a mess of a face but she looks to be just shuddering.
"I'm okay," she whispers, and I nod.
After getting changed for school, I head downstairs along with Bella and notice that Charlie is watching Bella very closely. He must have heard her muffled scream and assumed the worse - that she'd be back to her depressed zombie state.
After eating a quick breakfast, Bella drove us to school and I went straight for the front office to receive my schedule. However, to prevent myself from being swarmed by students eager to meet the new student of Forks High School, I stuck to Bella's side and she guided me to each of my classes. But that wouldn't stop the barrage of questions I've received from teachers and students alike when I actually arrived to each class. They wanted to know about Charlie's mysterious second daughter - who looked nothing like either of her parents - and why I arrived now after Bella arrived before me. I explained that there was too much sun in Florida and not enough rain that didn't destroy houses. Some laughed at my hurricane jokes but otherwise, most didn't understand.
By lunch time, Bella leads me to a lunch table with a whole group of people sit. I spot Mike who smiles at me but quickly looks away when he notices Bella. Bella doesn't seem bothered by this and sits down next to him. I sit next to her with my bowl of fruit.
A few of the boys glance in our direction before turning their heads to me, eyeing me with quick observations as I am sitting next to Bella.
"Where's Ben today?" A white blonde, pixie cut haired girl asks another girl with light brown hair.
"The blonde is Lauren, and the brunette is Angela," Bella whispers to me so low that only I pick up the sound of her voice. Bella leans a little towards their conversation but its subtle, not noticeable to the kids who aren't paying attention to her.
"Ben's got the stomach flu," Angel says in a quiet, calm voice. "Hopefully it's just some twenty-four hour thing. He was really sick last night."
"What did you two do this weekend?" A dark brunette asks.
"That's Jessica," Bella whispers.
"We were going to have a picnic Saturday, actually, but…we changed our minds," Angela says.
"That's too bad," Jessica says, not seeming to actually care since I saw the slightest eye roll.
"What happened?" Lauren asks.
"Well," Angela says, seeming hesitant, "we drove up north, almost to the hot springs - there's a good spot just about a mile up the trail. But, when we were halfway there…we saw something."
"Saw something? What?" Lauren's pale eyebrows pull together. Jessica seems interested now, leaning towards them to continue to listen.
"I don't know," Angela says. "We think it was a bear. It was black, anyway, but it seemed…too big."
Lauren snorts. "Oh, not you, too!" Her green eyes turn mocking. "Tyler tried to sell me that one last week."
"You're not going to see any bears that close to the resort," Jessica says, siding with her blonde friend.
I grunt. Earning their attention. "Bears can be anywhere up north, it doesn't matter if it's near a resort or not."
"And who are you?" Lauren asks, her eyes narrowing.
"I'm Danica, Bella's sister."
"Right," Lauren rolls her eyes. An anger fuels me immediately and I am about to get up to give her a reason to roll her eyes but Bella pats my hand gently.
"No, Angela is right," Bella says. "We had a hiker in just Saturday who saw the bear, too, Angela. He said it was huge and black and just outside of town, didn't he, Mike?"
There is a moment of silence where every pair of eyes at the table turns to stare at Bella.
"Mike?" Bella mutters, a look of mortification taking over her face. "Remember the guy with the bear story?"
"S-sure," Mike stutters, glancing between the two of us. He stares at Bella strangely and I can see she's shaking ever so slightly. To remedy her nervousness, I smile at Mike and he recovers and smiles back. "Yeah, there was a guy who said he saw a huge black bear right at the trailhead - bigger than a grizzly," he confirms.
"Hmph," Lauren turns her attention to Jessica. "Did you hear back from USC?" The blonde asks.
Everyone's attention is drawn away except for Mike and Angela, who smiles tentatively at Bella and me.
"So, what did you do this weekend, Bella? And, what was your name again?" He asks me.
"Danica, but people normally call me Dani."
Everyone except for Lauren, looks back for Bella's response. I wonder how far she's pushed her friends away for them to have just…ignored her presence like this.
"Friday night, Jessica and I went to a movie in Port Angeles. And then Dani and I spent Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday down at La Push," Bella responds.
Their eyes flickered to Jessica and back to us. Jessica looks irritated, like she didn't want to be associated with Bella. I glance at Jessica in full and sneer, disappointed that another girl wouldn't be supportive of someone who'd been hurt. Girls should stick together, especially when it's a boy that does the destroying. Jessica looks away from me and down at her tray and I smile slightly.
"What movie did you see?" Mike asks.
"Dead End - the one with the zombies," Bella grins.
"Oh! I wish I could have gone, I love zombies," I interrupt the conversation. Earning a laugh from Mike and a small giggle from Bella.
"I heard that one is scary. What did you think?" Mike asks.
"Bella had to leave at the end, she was so freaked," Jessica inserted with a sly smile.
Bella nods. "It was pretty scary."
I have never known my sister to be scared of much so I wonder how much of her answer is true. I picked at my fruit while Mike and Angela continued conversations with Bella. Eventually the others would start up their own conversations again, though they still looked at Bella a lot.
When Bella and I go to dump our trash, Angela follows.
"Thanks," Angela says in a low voice when we are away from the table. "Both of you, I mean it."
"For what?" Bella asks.
"Speaking up, sticking up for me."
"No problem."
Angela looks at Bella with concern but not offensively. "Are you okay?" She asks.
"Not completely," Bella admits. "But I'm a little bit better."
"I'm glad," she says. "I've missed you."
Lauren and Jessica stroll on by us and we overhear Lauren whisper loudly. "Oh, joy. Bella's back and she's brought a tag along."
"Excuse me?" I snap. Bella holds me back with a single hand around my left elbow. I look back at her and she shakes her head at me, screaming for me not to start anything.
The two girls giggle but quickly rush off.
Angela rolls her eyes at them and smiles at us.
Bella sighs.
"What's today's date?" she asks.
"It's January nineteenth."
"Hmm."
"What is it?" Angela asks.
"It was a year ago yesterday that I ad my first day here," Bella muses.
"Nothing's changed much," Angela mutters.
"I know," Bella agrees. "I was thinking the same thing, except…You're here now."
Bella nudges me playfully.
"I know, it's about time the party started…" I mumble.