Pinned but Fluttering

Chapter 2

Sorry it's been a little while since I updated this story, but life has been crazy. Here it is! Let me know what you think, please!!! :)

Chapter Two

  

Billy sneered, cursing under his breath rudely, as Mrs. Jane informed him of the contents of the court order. Next Monday Billy and I were to appear before a Judge Aro to resolve the petition filed by Mrs. Jane to place me in public school. But Mrs. Jane was not petitioning for enrollment in the Quileute school that Jacob attended. No, this petition stated that, in her professional opinion, Mrs. Jane believed that my best interests would be served by attending my junior and senior years of high school at Forks High.

Wow. I wasn't expecting that.

I haven't attended school in Forks since fifth grade, the year my dad died.

Vague memories of my few friends suddenly surfaced, long erased by the years lived and the pain endured in La Push. A girl with a kind face and sweet smile...Angela? A girl with dark curls who seemed nice to my face but who spread rumors behind my back...Jessica? A kind but geeky boy who had attempted to protect me from the incessant teasing and bullying I had been subjected to after my mother's death...Eric?

Kids could be so cruel. And they often were.

Many of them had been cruel to me. They had sensed my weakness, my frailty after my mother's death, and, like the predators they were, they went in for the kill.

Even though I had been part of their “crowd” before my mom died.

But the memories, so long buried, of Angela's kindness and Eric's protection were unspeakably sweet. It was nice to know that someone had cared for me, once upon a time.

Even if it was seven years ago.

I wondered if they still lived in Forks? I hope they hadn't moved away. So much could change in seven years.

I was proof of that sad truth.

I was just a kid when I lived in Forks with my mom and dad, and life was practically perfect. I hadn't realized how good I had had it back then.

Lucky me.

The worst that had happened was that my mom had burned dinner at least twice a week. My dad would come home from the police station, roll his eyes at me behind my mother's back while he fanned the smoke out the back door, and offer to order a pizza or make sub sandwiches for dinner.

That was my dad's extent of kitchen know-how. Except for making breakfasts. Dad made the best breakfasts.

Once when my mom had traveled to California to visit Gram, Dad had cooked breakfast food for our dinner every night for a week. Pancakes, eggs, waffles, omelets, and bacon. Lots of bacon.

I was sworn to secrecy.

It was the best.

But I tried not to think of those happy memories. Recalling life with parents and friends tugged at my insides, bringing waves of nausea as I noted the huge differences between life then and life now.

I couldn't let myself remember what my life had been like in Forks too much. It just hurt too much.

I barely heard Billy's arguments and complaints directed toward Mrs. Jane: the hardship of driving me into Forks and picking me up on a daily basis, her “ignoring Bella's wishes” to be educated at home, his “rights as Bella's legal guardian” to educate me as he saw fit, his handicapped status, etc., etc.