Pinned but Fluttering

Chapter 5

Here's Chapter 5, exactly a week after my last posting...which isn't too bad considering my crazy-busy work schedule and four kids. Life can be absolutely insane at times—or hilariously funny. One or the other, anyway...or sometimes both at once. But it's never dull, at least....

Chapter 5

When Mrs. Jane braked her van to a stop at the intersection with the highway, with Forks to the east and La Push to the west, I was surprised when she made a right turn toward Forks rather than the left toward La Push and Billy's house.

I looked at her curiously, wondering where she was taking me. Of course, any delay in facing the wrath of the Blacks was very welcome at this point. I was definitely dreading returning to their house after winning my point in court this morning.

Mrs. Jane grinned at me as she straightened the steering wheel out of the turn and proceeded to drive toward Forks. “I thought,” she said slowly, her grin widening, if that were even possible, “that we'd get all the paperwork done today so that you can start attending school tomorrow.”

My blank look amused her. I didn't think her smile could get any bigger, but it did. Then she winked at me.

“Bella, we're going to enroll you at Forks High today.”

“Wow,” I whispered half under my breath. “You don't mess around.”

Mrs. Jane threw back her head and laughed. She had a beautiful laugh, almost childlike in its innocent joy. “No, Bella. I do not 'mess around,'” she said, laughter still in her voice.

How long had it been since I had heard laughter? I mean real laughter—the happy, joyful kind. Mocking laughter—now that I was quite familiar with. But truly happy laughter? Not so much.

I don't think I've laughed since Jacob and I played together back when we were little kids, back when his mother was still alive. He was an innocent kid then, unacquainted with grief and loss. However, I knew both emotions too well after first losing my mom, then my dad.

But Jacob had brought out the child in me again, despite the painful life I had lived since my mom's diagnosis of cancer. And Jacob's mother had helped me recover my sense of humor and laughter as well.

Sarah Black had laughed. A lot. And her laughter reminded me of bells—a rounded, joyous, musical sound that rang often through the Black home. Her joi de vivre (“joy of living”) was infectious, and she pulled all of us into her silliness, making Billy toss back his head and laugh, a deep, throaty sound that reverberated throughout the house, Jacob and the girls joining in—and yes, even me.

Until I had ruined everything, that is.

But since the death of Sarah Black, laughter had become a foreign concept to me.

“Bella? Bella?”

I yanked myself back into the present. Mrs. Jane was waving her hand in front of my face teasingly.

“Earth to Bella?”

I shook my head, trying to rid my mind of the unbidden memories of happiness and laughter and Sarah Black: all three gone from my life now.

“Yes?” I asked politely as I focused on the woman beside me.

“I was asking if you wanted some lunch before we went to the school,” Mrs. Jane inquired.

“Um, sure,” I mumbled, surprised by her question. I was not accustomed to people asking after my welfare...or feeding me voluntarily. I really hoped that my shock at her solicitude didn't come off as ingratitude.