Discover Twilight

chapter xiii

School, the usual, has been going by at an extraordinarily slow pace, or maybe it's just my Senioritis kicking in. Each hour seemed to overlap with the next, slipping into a pattern of boredom and the ache of freedom that final bell promised for Bella and I to return to La Push for the afternoon. Thankfully the lunch bell rings, meaning we only had two more classes until the sweet release of freedom, and I make my way to my usual table with Angela, talking about the assignment we were just given for Music Theory. I seat myself quietly, pulling out my Theory notebook as I listen to my friends carry on with their typical mindless banter. Bella slowly carries her tray to the empty Cullen table, but looks over at me, Mike, Angela, Jessica and Eric before sitting down. I give her a soft smile, patting the empty seat in between me and Eric like I have for the past five months in an attempt to reintegrate Bella back into society. Bella takes a deep hitched breath, then casually joins us. Everyone takes note of her presence but kept talking, knowing that we could very well scare her away with sudden movements like a little bird. Jessica, who's sitting across from me, starts having a coughing fit, "I'll kill Tyler if he gave me his flu."

Angela pulls out a pack of travel sized tissues of her cardigan pocket and offers Jess one, "It's going around. My sister was so sick she couldn't come on our hike this weekend... so she didn't see it."

We all look at Ang, curious on what she meant by "it". With Forks being such a small town, we had all heard the rumors of an overgrown bear running amuck in the woods of our surrounding areas but we took it with a grain of salt. But naturally I assumed that she meant the super bear that Charlie had been getting reports of. Eric sees our collective curiosity being peaked and says in a low voice so only our table could hear, "Ang, maybe you should keep that to yourself."

Angela looks at my expression, seeing that I'm ready to hear more, and leans across her boyfriend whispering, "We saw something, Eric."

Eric raises his hands in surrender, not putting any type of feeling behind his words, "I believe you."

Jess shakes her auburn curls, laughing at his surrender, "No he doesn't. He's just trying to get lucky."

His posture straightens as he looks to his girlfriend of 10 months, "Is that an option?"

I roll my eyes at the Asian boy seated beside me, smiling as I smack him upside the head which made everyone at the table laugh. Angela ignores her horny boyfriend and looks at me, knowing I'm the only one really interested by this and that was going to take her seriously, "It was jet black and huge; on all fours it was still taller than a person. A bear maybe."

Upon hearing the description Angela provided me, I think back to a few weeks ago when I had that nightmare about Sam, me and that wolf being dead in Bella's truck, and how I saw those grey and black wolves running along the treeline. I push it out of my mind, concluding that they were normal wolves and the distance between my upstairs bedroom and the forest that was a couple yards away from our house was the reason they looked larger than normal as Jessica snickers playfully, "Or Bigfoot."

Mike laughs, pointing at Angela with his cheese stick, "Or an alien. Lucky you didn't get probed."

"Yeah because if she had, she'd be an idiot like you Newton," I add, yet again making everyone laugh over Angela's quiet whispers, "We saw it." I can tell by the look on her face that she's deadly serious and a little scared. And to be honest, I would be too if I had seen it and no one believed me because multiple hikers have been reported missing since the first time someone reported seeing the super bear.

"You're not the only one," Bella announces making everyone stare at her, shocked by her speaking to them for the first time in months. Bella continues looking at Angela, and Angela alone, "My dad's been getting reports at the sheriff's station. A couple hikers went missing. People are scared."

Angela was visibly grateful that Bella decided to stick up for her and provide something to solidify her story. Realizing that the Chief's daughter would know more about it that they would, they all stop messing with Angela, who looks slightly scared but happy that she was right. Mike messes with his cheese stick, picking at the fraying sides as he quietly mumbles, "I did hear some guy talking about it at the store."

I send a pointed look to Eric, sending Bella a wink as she twists the stem off her blood red apple, basically silently threatening him to apologize for not believing Angela. Eric forces a laugh, avoiding my dark eyes and throws an arm around Angela's shoulders, "Last time you clowns doubt my girlfriend."