Mourning Doves • J.H

Chapter 4

THE GROUND was icy the next day. The air was colder too. Both girls looked at the stairs in front of the house, Dove looked over to Bella.

"You may have the urge to slip, but please don't. I don't want to go to the hospital first thing in the morning."

Bella rolled her eyes and stepped down them without a problem, it was when she tried to walk to the truck is when she fell. Dove snorted and slowly made her way down the steps as Charlie came over to help Bella onto her feet.

"You alright?" He asked her, fighting off a laugh.

"Yeah, I'm good." Bella said as she slowly got into the truck, watching Dove slowly inch her way to the passenger side, "Ice doesn't really help the uncoordinated."

Charlie nodded and cleared his throat,  "I had some new tires put on the truck." He told the pair of them, "Old ones were getting pretty bald. Well, probably be late for dinner. I gotta head down to Mason County." He said to the girls, who looked at him confused, why would he be travelling there?

"Why?" Dove questioned

Charlie sighed and avoiding their questioning gazes, "Security guard at the Grisham Mil got killed by some kind of animal." He said as he walked over to the police cruiser.

"An animal?" Bella question, not even sure she heard right.

"You're not in Phoenix anymore." Charlie shrugged, "Anyway, figured I'd lend a hand."

"Be careful." Bella said and Dove nodded in agreement.

"Always am."

"Thanks for tires." Dove said as Charlie nodded and drove away, leaving the girls in the driveway. Bella started the truck and silence ensued between the two, what they didn't mention was that they were both thinking of the animal attack.

By the time they had gotten to the school, it had started raining, so not only was there the rain, it was icy and windy. The girls rushed into the school and towards their first class, Dove managed to bump into someone as Bella walked into the biology class, Dove gasped and reached to the floor to grab her book, looking up to apologise when she noticed that she had bumped into Jasper.

"Oh, hello." She cheered, he grinned and watched as she stood up on get again. He walked around her to get to his own class.

"I'll see you later, Dove." He said as he continued down the corridor, leaving Dove stood outside her classroom, watching him.

"Miss Williams, are you planning on coming in anytime soon?" The teacher called from the classroom, causing her to jump and rush to her desk, where she had noticed that Eric had corned Bella into talking. Dove took her seat as she listened to the conversation.

"Prom Committee is a chick thing, but I gotta cover it for the paper anyway, and they need a guy to help choose the music, so I need your playlist." Eric said as he took off his coat, his hand out for Bella's and Dove's so he could put them on the hooks.

"Hey, listen, I was wondering, did you have a date to.." Eric said to Bella as Mike walked in, waving his soaked beanie above Bella's and Dove's head, making the pair cringe from the droplets.

"What's up, Arizona? Huh, how you two liking the rain." He sang playfully as he took off his jacket.

"Yeah, Mike, hey you're cute man." Eric said to Mike

"Oh, I know." Mike grinned, the girls looked to one another before they looked over to Bella's desk, noticing Edward there. Bella hadn't mentioned to Dove that she had seen him before today, so Dove took it as he had been skipping classes, avoiding Bella. Bella took a deep breath, and with a shove from Dove, she walked over to her desk.