Gifted

Chapter 5: Changes

Day 20 of the trip

Bella was stronger than she thought. The trip she had calculated was based on a 30-mile journey each day for 30 days, plus a couple of days cushion. Even with the half day delay due to her...condition...and of course, procuring her bike, she was able to make the 830 mile journey from Helena, MT to Forks in two thirds of the time she had allotted herself.

As she left the last town before she would reach Forks, she made the decision to keep her word to her father and wait until the 30th day to see him. That gave her more than a week to prepare herself.

Among the dozens of running thoughts and worries going through her head at the same time, one stood out: what was he going to tell people here?

If the town knew the Chief's wife and daughter were dead...how the hell was he going to explain Bella's sudden appearance? She didn't think they knew nothing of it...her parents had lived here before moving to Phoenix. Her father had then come back without his wife or daughter. There was no reason for him to lie back then. He had to have told the truth about Renee. It was all over the news after all. But Bella? Surely if he'd said she was killed as well, he wouldn't have so readily accepted her request to come home? The Chief's daughter, back from the dead?

But how else could he have explained her absence?

She sighed and rubbed her temples. She'd been inside her head a little too much the past three weeks, more so than could possibly be healthy.

She reached by her neck and grabbed hold of the tube connected to the new, now slightly worn pack tied to her back. She brought it to her lips and drank in the last of her water. Just as well, she thought. She had just passed the "Welcome to Forks" sign. She was here.

She decided not to risk going into town, at least during open hours, before she saw Charlie. Not knowing her official story, she'd rather be safe than sorry. And she didn't want to get her father into trouble.

So unless she wanted to turn around and stay in the next town over, she was left with little choice. She would have to stay in the forest. That was perfectly fine by Bella. The forests here were beautiful, more lush and vibrant than she'd ever seen in the midwest. She could do without the constant rain, she admitted to herself, but her new jacket did a better job than any of her old things at keeping her warm and dry.

She sighed as she thought of the last three weeks.

She had been forced to disobey her rules on the first day of her journey. The trip was too important, and 830 miles was not going to be an easy task. But she was determined to get to Charlie without incidents, so she gritted her teeth and waited in the woods behind the sporting goods store until over an hour after closing. With what she was planning, she wasn't going to take any risks.

She made her way inside (her levitation forced the lock open in seconds) and proceeded to haul out her biggest load yet.

She winced, still feeling guilty...but if she was honest with herself she was more guilty with how much she loved this bike than with her methods of acquiring it.

The Trek bike she had taken that night was worth more than what she normally needed to survive for a year. She would know-she did the math. But it was absolutely perfect, better than anything she'd ever ridden. It was stable, smooth, comfortable, and in the nearly 1000 miles she'd ridden it over all kinds of terrain it had rarely given her any problems. Worn out from her emotional meltdown earlier, Bella had given into temptation and treated herself for the first time since she'd been on her own. Maybe she was just relieved she hadn't killed anyone earlier that night.

She left the store 2 hours later with a new quality daypack stuffed with the other items she-attained. New shoes, windbreaker, heavier coat, several pairs of warm leggings and shirts, gloves, and a small blanket. The panniers she'd outfitted her bike with were also full of small luxuries she had never allowed herself before, and for the first time in her life, she now had an actual tent. She'd experienced a brief moment of wonder when it occurred to her that in seven years of sleeping in trees, caves, on rooftops and on wherever she could find on a dry forest floor, she had never even thought of finding herself a tent.

She shook her head as she cycled. No point dwelling.

Though riding furiously, Bella had also spent the 20 days quietly rebuilding her mental walls. She put more thought and care than she had previously thought possible into them. She had even, after furtively checking for miles around, on several nights purposefully thought about things that usually...resulted in terrible outcomes. She needed to test herself, to see if she could possibly make herself any stronger before she would have to face her father and everyone else who would surely be interested in her. She succeeded. Still to her complete and utter surprise, she had succeeded.

She neared a bridge that she knew as soon as she crossed would take her into the middle of town. She spied a well-trodden path a few dozen feet in front of her, before she would reach the bridge, and turned. Time to be Pocahontas again, she sighed to herself.