Discover Twilight

chapter vi

Washington has very few sunny days, the summer they have equates to a Floridian spring: it's not a million degrees out but it's constantly raining. Not that I mind because Florida's summer is so hot and you feel as though you're melting. La Push is a lot better than in the city because it's slightly warmer and the beach is right there. Despite the constant downpour of wet weather, I spent most of my days at First Beach playing soccer or cliff diving. The summer was filled with soccer games with Sam, Paul and their buddy Jared, working on Jacob's Rabbit, and avoiding Bella's boyfriend and his family because they gave me the creeps. Summer quickly got swept away into autumn and the start of my Senior year. It was memorable to say the least however it was still apparent the tension between Jake and Sam not to mention the countless arguments and fighting that occurred between Paul and I.

Nevertheless everything fell into place, I had a brother that seemed to love me and being around me, a best friend who cared for me and I spent the days with, and an almost normal life. Around here, everything that seemed to be normal wasn't and everything abnormal was the norm. The dysfunction that my family had somehow was normal compared to the kids Sam was friends with and the kids I now go to school with.

School launched into something trivial: seven classes, different cliques and the cliches that come with that, stereotypical jerks who think all women should fall at their feet, and my cousin's friends. Surprisingly I really liked Angela, she was the only one of Bella's friends and people that go to Forks High school that I found tolerable. Each day, every single class I had consisted of the Cullens and their remarks about not hearing or seeing something in regards to me. Something about them made my stomach churn, not one thing about them was normal or made me trust them. Jasper, Alice's boyfriend/ adopted brother, was the only one of them that is almost normal, though he had this sense about him that he was in constant pain and ready to pounce at anyone and everyone...with the exception of me. The Cullens, I quickly learned, had a reputation for not liking anyone outside of their family until Edward started dating Bella and for some reason their tolerance of others was extended to me.

Soccer season was rapidly approaching and everyday Sam, Paul and Jared would help me condition and train for tryouts that happen to be held on Bella's 18th birthday.

September 13, 2004: Bella's Birthday...and soccer tryouts.

The alarm screeches on the bedside table to awaken me from my dreams of gigantic wolves. Gigantic wolves, two to be exact: one pitch black with equally as dark eyes and one dark brown with gray tuffets around the eyes like a mask. On my left, my book from the night before sits there with the spine in the air. Today is the day I finally get to step out on a field and nothing is going to stop me from making the first string. After putting on my running shorts and my lucky jersey, I pull my Mom's favorite hoodie over my head and begin yanking a comb through my thick, uncontrollable blonde curls. I grab my soccer duffel and leave it by my bedroom door before going into Bella's room with Charlie to give her the gifts we got for her 18th.

"Happy Birthday!" We yell barging into her room seeing her curled up on her purple bed set with her copy of Romeo and Juliet by her head.

She squints at the brightness of the sun coming through her bay window and drags her hand across her face before pouting in our direction, "I thought that I told you two not to get me anything?"

We laugh at her, surprised that she actually believed we wouldn't get her anything. I shrug handing her Renee and Charlie's collaborating gifts, "Oh well. Sucks to be you."

She looks down at Charlie's unwrapped gift, a digital camera, trying hard to suppress her love for the gift. "The wrapped one is from your mother. She thought it would be nice to keep a book full of memories of your Senior year. Dang Senior year? When did you two get so old?" Charlie jokes as Bella opens her present from her mother to see a pretty scrapbook.

I flip him off as Bella smiles up at her father, "We're not that old."

Charlie leans down looking at the top of his dark haired daughter's head, "Is that a grey hair?"

Bella bursts off her bed and to her full length mirror in front of the window to inspect her hair only stop the search when Charlie and I start laughing our asses off, happy she believed it.

Bella didn't seem very amused, "Haha very funny."

Charlie, still laughing, shakes his head and leaves the room. Bella plops down on her bed asking me to pick out her clothes because she's too lazy so I grab her purple knit sweater, jeans and the brown raincoat Alice gave her and toss them at her head. "Hey you can't do that. It's my birthday so no bullying me," she laughs in my direction. 

I roll my eyes at her, "Oh shut up and put on your clothes, I'm taking you to school today."

From the time I pull out of the drive to the arrival at school we were in silence. Her truck is too chaotic, it stalls and backfires and her truck is younger than mine by a decade. Bella looks around the parking lot, in search of her "perfect" boyfriend whilst I make a beeline to our friends who're congregating at Tyler's Nissan, the replacement for the van he had last year when he slid on black ice and almost killed Bella.

"Wherefore thou Kota?" Mike asks in his horrible posh accent, deeply bowing.

I roll my eyes at him taking a Twizzler from Angela, "Hey guys."

Mike scrambles back up looking in the direction that Bella's coming then to me, trying to decide which one of us to talk to first, "You finish your R&J paper?" I shake my head him reminding him that I'm in an AP English class but still offer to help him write it.

"Hey guys, so my mom wants me to make a book full of memories so could I take a picture of you?" Bella asks pulling out the digital camera from her bag.

Angela starts backing away from me but I grab her wrist, "I don't pose for pictures, I take them."

I shrug throwing my arm across her shoulder, ensuring that she couldn't slip away, "Not today. If I'm in this, you are."

The boys start jousting, Jessica juts out her hip, Angela points her camera at Bella and I cross my eyes as Bella takes the picture. Behind her I see her boyfriend's Volvo pull into his usual parking spot and I scowl at him.  "Oh great. Cullen's here." I comment with Mike, both of our voices dripping in sarcasm. 

We all turn to the school, leaving Bella alone with her boyfriend. Angela and Eric are a couple but they're not even close to how obsessed with each other that Bella and Edward are. It's honestly concerning. Edward looks at her like he's ready to kill someone for her and Bella is completely and totally head over heels in love with him. Like she wouldn't know how to function without him coexisting at her side.

"You ready for soccer tryouts, Kota? You've been training for a while," Angela asks after looking down at my duffel.

I nod tightening my grip on my bag, "I'm ready. I've been playing soccer for forever and I'm sure I'll have a spot on the team."

Before the conversation could go any further I felt my phone vibrate in my hoodie pocket so I ventured away from them to a bench and answered the call without looking at the caller ID. "Hello? This is Dakota."

"Kota... it's Sam." The line goes quiet for a while and I could hear his ragged breathing.

"Hello? Sam? You there?" I ask after a minute of him not saying anything to me. Line remains silent for a while, our breathing the only sound being exchanged when it hits me. The only thing in the world he would be hesitant to tell me is...,"Mom's dead, isn't she?"