Stranded Belief

Chapter 11: Bella

Chapter 11: Bella.
Song: Lost.

The cool wind blew through Bella's hair as she stared at the sight before them.
"I can't believe you..." Hazel said with hurt flashing in her eyes.
"Calm down Hazel. It was just a prank..." Bella tried to explain even though she felt the same thing Hazel did at the moment.
Jet tried to speak, but nothing came out.
"It was just a joke. Y'all didn't even let us get through the whole thing." Jack said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Oh yeah? And what was the rest of your plan?" Bella replied with her hands on her hips, forgetting what she had just explained to Hazel.

"There were many phases, but none that matter anymore." Jack said harshly, truly mad that their plan was figured out so quickly.

"It was cruel." Bella said.
"It was a joke."
"I don't care."

Bella walked away without another word. Maybe she was being a little too dramatic, but she was mad.
When she was mad she tended to avoid conversation and shut down completely.

She sat on a log and tried to ignore the people calling her name, repeatedly.

Anything she felt for Jack was temporarily torn away.
Of course she wouldn't stay mad at him forever. She would forgive him in an hour or two as long as he didn't mess anything else up.
She wasn't as mad as she made it seem but she was still fairly upset.

The thing about Bella was she HATED being lied to. It went way back into her past.

Bella just had to show the twins that she didn't like it. And if that meant ignoring them for awhile then so be it.

She could also just sit down and talk to them about, but where's the fun in that?

Bella sat humming to herself while Jack and Jet talked to the other girls.

The worst thing about all of this was that Bella believed that Jack was lost and hurt and that Jet had been bitten by a snake.

The snake... It wasn't real.
The reality hit Bella. They thought they knew where they were because of the snake bite, but it wasn't real...
They were still lost.

Anger boiled inside of her.
She walked up to him and before she would even think she slapped Jet across his cheek.

War had begun. But not just pranks anymore. She was done with playing around it was time to go home.
She thought they had a chance but now she wasn't sure...

All because of Jet.

Jet winced at the sting in his cheek but all he said was, "I deserved that."

"Darn right you did." Bella replied as she walked away.

Jack let out a sigh as the blonde disappeared into the trees.
He didn't like seeing her upset and he didn't like being the cause of it.
In fact, he hated being the cause of it.

Almost to the point of hating himself.
His past held so many things that he put on himself. People said to 'let it all go' and 'forgive yourself' but how?
Why?

Bella stood staring at the sky.
She had a sudden urge to run.
But not run away and hide, but just to run freely. So that's what she did.

"I'm going for a run." Bella told Hazel as she walked passed her and Hazel didn't reply.

One foot after the other Bella took off into a sprint along the sand.
She was a runner back in high school but a knee injury was the end of that and that's why she joined choir.
She had abandoned choir after Jr. High to become an athlete like her father wanted. The knee injury didn't bother her, but it devastated her father.
He had dreams to live out through his daughter and Bella didn't quite understand that.
But she felt bad for Matt. Soon their father would try to make him the picture perfect child because he 'failed' with Bella. She wasn't sure if her father thought that he failed or that Bella had failed him. Either way she didn't like it.
That's why she left. She wasn't accepted. She wasn't Lucy. She wasn't her step-sister and her father couldn't accept that she wasn't going to be her.
Bella didn't want to a star athlete.
Bella didn't want to be perfect.
Bella wanted to be Bella.
Would her father ever understand that? Probably not.
She hadn't been home since the night she told him she would never be a runner and he blew up at her for 'not carrying on the family tradition'.