Chapter 8

[BOLD MEANS FROM THE ORIGINAL BOOKS

ITALICS MEAN THOUGHTS ]

Bella POV

My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down .It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my favorite shirt-sleeveless ,white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka

If my brother was here he would be laughing his ass off and claiming that I was too dramatic for my own good that we were only moving to Forks and not the Artic.

 In the Olympic Peninsula of the northwest Washington State ,a small town named forks exists under a near constant cover of clouds. It rains in this inconsequential town more than any other place in the United States of America. It was from this town and its gloomy omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with me and my brother when we were only a year old. It was in this town where I was compelled to spend a month every summer till I was fourteen .That was the year I finally put my foot down; these past three summers, my dad Charlie, vacationed with us in California for two weeks instead.

It was to Forks that I now exiled myself-- an action that I took with great horror.

I took with great horror. I detested Forks. I loved Phoenix. I loved the sun and the blistering heat. I loved the vigorous, sprawling city.

You might see that I am neglecting my brother in the above statements but it is not that I don't like him or anything ,I don't but that he loved going to forks and being with Charlie . even with me trying to male him understand he still called Charlie at least every week and even with me throwing a tantrum mom did not stop him from going back to forks when Charlie left after the two weeks in California for the rest of the summer, even the idea of moving to forks is his but I am tagging along since Mom and Phil is still in the early honeymoon phase and mom had to stay back with us in Phoenix when Phil left for his games . I did not like my brother even if he was a great hep growing up doing more than half the housework and even earning money by working in the neighborhood he never spent money on me ,the only thing that I knew pissed him off was the Quileute's back in forks near LA Push. So to him moving to Forks was not a self imposed exile on the contrary it was something he was looking forward to doing as he kept leaving things there when ever he visited ,I found out once when I was looking through his stuff to find some cash but to my unfortunate luck he never kept money with him and instead he carried a debit card with him in his wallet. so anyway coming back, Hadrian always took all the attention from me here in school he was known as the Better Swan and it honestly irritated me that I am clumsy and he is super fit and handsome and because most kids in in our school is scared of Hadrian even though he doesn't look that tough he could throw a mean punch so they steered clear of me while even thinking about dating ,in a new school in such a small town I knew that I was bound to get lucky and will be the center of attraction even with my brother unintentionally hogging it 

"Bella," my mom said to me -- the last of a thousand times -- before I got on the

plane. "You don't have to do this."

My mom looks like me, except with short hair and laugh lines. I felt a spasm of panic as I stared at her wide, childlike eyes. How could I leave my loving, erratic, harebrained mother to fend for herself ? Of course she had Phil now, so the bills would probably get paid, there would be food in the refrigerator, gas in her car, and someone to call when she got lost, but still...

"I want to go," I lied. I'd always been a bad liar, but I'd been saying this lie so frequently lately that it sounded almost convincing now.

"Tell Charlie I said hi. and make sure you stick close to your brother and tell him to call me"

"I will."

"I'll see you soon," she insisted. "You can come home whenever you want -- I'll come right back as soon as you need me."

But I could see the sacrifice in her eyes behind the promise.

"Don't worry about me or even about Rian ," I urged. "It'll be great. I love you, Mom."

She hugged me tightly for a minute, and then I got on the plane, and she was gone.

It's a four-hour flight from Phoenix to Seattle, another hour in a small plane up to Port

Angeles, and then an hour drive back down to Forks. Flying doesn't bother me; the hour

in the car with Charlie, though, I was a little worried about.

Charlie had really been fairly nice about the whole thing. He seemed genuinely pleased

that I was coming to live with him for the first time with any degree of permanence.

 He'd already gotten us registered for high school and was going to help me get a car. I was jealous of the fact that Rian had already bought a nice used car and redid the works so that it looked brand new and sent it to be delivered to Forks before he left a week ago 

But it was sure to be awkward with Charlie. Neither of us was what anyone would call verbose, and I didn't know what there was to say regardless. For the first time I prayed that my brother was also at the air port to pick me up. I knew he was more than a little confused by my decision -- like my mother before me, I hadn't made a secret of my distaste for Forks. He knew that Hadrian would love to live with him and it didn't bother him much.

When I landed in Port Angeles, it was raining. I didn't see it as an omen -- just unavoidable. I'd already said my goodbyes to the sun.

As I saw Charlie and Hadrian waiting for me with the car I could feel my jaw hitting the floor at seeing the nice car and was enraged that he had such a great car and tried to school my expression as much as possible after all I had a kind hearted selfless image to maintain ,looking at their faces I could tell that it somewhat worked though Rian seemed a bit suspicious of me before adopting a look of indifference. and I was relived f the fact that he didn't bring his Cruiser with him as I was somewhat afraid that he might show up in his uniform with the car to pick me up.

My primary motivation behind buying a car, despite the scarcity of my funds, was that I refused to be driven around town in a car with red and blue lights on top. Nothing slows down traffic like a cop. and also the fact that Rian had a car

Charlie gave me an awkward, one-armed hug when I stumbled my way off the plane.

"It's good to see you, Bells," he said, smiling as he automatically caught and steadied

me. "You haven't changed much. How's Renee?"

"Mom's fine. It's good to see you, too, Dad." I wasn't allowed to call him Charlie to his face.

"Hello Bella ,how was your flight" ,Rian asked

 "It was okay"

I had only a few bags. Most of my Arizona clothes were too permeable for Washington.

My mom and I had pooled our resources to supplement my winter wardrobe, but it was still scanty. It all fit easily into the trunk of the mustang.

Rian took the back seat as I called shotgun and Dad wanted to drive back home. and from the rearview mirror I could see him nodding off ,he must have been tired somehow as usually my brother is a bundle of energy, and for a moment I was worried but the I shrugged it off thinking that It didn't affect me.

"I found a good car for you, really cheap," he announced when we were strapped in.

"What kind of car?" I was suspicious of the way he said "good car for you" as opposed to just "good car."

"Well, it's a truck actually, a Chevy."

"Where did you find it?"

"Do you remember Billy Black down at La Push?" La Push is the tiny Indian reservation on the coast.

"No."

"He used to go fishing with us during the summer," Charlie prompted.

That would explain why I didn't remember him. I do a good job of blocking painful, unnecessary things from my memory.

"He's in a wheelchair now," Charlie continued when I didn't respond, "so he can't drive anymore, and he offered to sell me his truck cheap."

"What year is it?" I could see from his change of expression that this was the question he was hoping I wouldn't ask.

"Well, Rian's done a lot of work on the engine -- it's only a few years old, really."

I hoped he didn't think so little of me as to believe I would give up that easily. "When did he buy it?"

"He bought it in 1984, I think."

"Did he buy it new?"

"Well, no. I think it was new in the early sixties -- or late fifties at the earliest," he

admitted sheepishly.

"Ch -- Dad, I don't really know anything about cars. I wouldn't be able to fix it if

anything went wrong, and I couldn't afford a mechanic..."

"Really, Bella, the thing runs great. They don't build them like that anymore."

The thing, I thought to myself... it had possibilities -- as a nickname, at the very least.

"How cheap is cheap?" After all, that was the part I couldn't compromise on.

"Well, honey, I kind of already bought it for you. As a homecoming gift." Charlie

peeked sideways at me with a hopeful expression. And don't worry it was completely checked and even redone by your brother and even I helped a bit, I was surprised at that but happy as I knew that if my brother worked on the truck it must at least look good and run great 

Wow. Free.

"You didn't need to do that, Dad. I was going to buy myself a car."

"I don't mind. I want you to be happy here." He was looking ahead at the road when he said this. Charlie wasn't comfortable with expressing his emotions out loud. I inherited that from him. So I was looking straight ahead as I responded.

 "That's really nice, Dad. Thanks. I really appreciate it." No need to add that my being happy in Forks is an impossibility. He didn't need to suffer along with me. And I never looked a free truck in the mouth -- or engine.

"Well, now, you're welcome," he mumbled, embarrassed by my thanks.

We exchanged a few more comments on the weather, which was wet, and that was pretty much it for Conversation. We stared out the windows in silence.

It was beautiful, of course; I couldn't deny that. Everything was green: the trees, their trunks covered with moss, their branches hanging with a canopy of it, the ground covered with ferns. Even the air filtered down greenly through the leaves.

It was too green -- an alien planet.