Twilight

Chapter Three

The next day, I woke up to find my room fixed and some of my clothes replaced by gothic or just general dark pieces, even a few leather jackets; black, red, brown, indigo and silver. I rolled my eyes; Rigan! She must have had my Awakening in mind, and believe me so did I. I had spent some of my night lying awake, thinking about what I had seen Rigan do, what I did and what Rigan had told me and frankly, as well as impossibly, it made sense. 

As I came out of the house, I saw Charlie pull up into the drive in my truck. I brushed the rain from my face, utterly disgusted at how thick the rain still was from the storm last night. Also, it had been below freezing levels so there was ice on the gravel. Me being me, which is a serious suffer of klutztosis, I slipped up on the ice and landed on my butt.

Charlie was by my side in a split second. "You all right, Bella?" he asked, immediately concerned.

"Yep!" I said brightly. "I'm good. What's left of my ego is a bit bruised though," I joked. "You know what I'm like; highly uncoordinated!"

"Yeah," Charlie agreed. "That is also why I had some new tyres installed onto your truck. They have apparently very good grip on icy surfaces."

I nodded, saying nothing.

"Well," he then said. "I'll probably be late for dinner so you can invite a friend over or something and have a pizza. I got a report from Rigan on my desk this morning; secuirty guard was killed at a power station last night by a kind of animal she was tracking."

My heart did a somersault. "An animal?" I repeated, trying to keep my voice neutral.

Charlie opened his police cruiser door and shrugged. "You're not in Phoenix anymore, Bells," he said.

I looked down at my feet. Rigan sure knew how to cover up what really happened; I had a feeling this had become second nature to her. Maybe she really wasn't the Rigan I knew at all . . . .

"Anyway," Charlie said and I looked back up at him. "Better take a look. According to her superiors, she's usually not wrong about these things. Say hello to her for me, would you?"

"Sure," I said. "Be careful."

Charlie then noticed my new brown leather jacket with the fur collar and the fur inside; Rigan knew me inside out! He raised his eyebrows at it. "Where did you get that?" he asked.

"Present from Rigan," I replied truthfully. "Besides, it's nice and warm."

Charlie nodded. "It looks expensive. Be sure to thank her," he said.

"I will," I reassured him. "And be careful."

"Always am," he said and drove off.

As I drove to school, it was started to pour heavily with ice-cold rain as well as thunder and lightning making a come back. Fortunately, the inside of my truck was nice and toasty; I guessed Charlie also had a new heater installed for me.

As I stepped out of my truck, I expected to be punched by cold rain but instead I was welcomed by the pitter-patter on an umbrella. Rigan grinned at me and I grinned back.

"Sleep well?" she asked.

"Not really," I answered.

"That's normal," Rigan assured. "I couldn't sleep for two nights because I was so goddamn scared."

"Why did you change my wardrobe?" I then demanded.

Rigan looked at me innocently. "Some of those pieces were a) seriously not Forks survival standard and b) you'd seriously suit those colours. Besides, all of us Mordains wear dark colours. Bright colours make us stand out and that is not what we want. We need to either blend in or be ignored."