Pieces of the Memories (Drabble Set 7)
Title: Pieces of the Memories
Author: audreyii_fic
Fandom: Twilight (Team Jacob)
Rating: T
Characters: Swan Family, Black Family, Clearwater Family
Genre: Humor/Angst/Friendship
Warnings: Occasional language.
banner courtesy of lilabut
Summary:
Renee leaves Charlie and Bella. AU drabble series.
( beginning)
First Beach (Jessica)
The weather decides to finally admit it's August, and everyone goes to spend the day at First Beach.
Mike Newton is looking at Jessica Stanley and Jessica Stanley is pretending not to notice. Jessica Stanley has curly brown hair that shines and boobs that have grown two sizes this summer (so far), so Jessica Stanley is getting very good at pretending not to notice when boys look at her.
She does peek at Mike out of the corner of her eye when she's sure he's not looking, though. And she thinks his growth spurt agrees with him.
It is only two and a half months until the very first homecoming dance of Jessica Stanley's high school career. So when Mike glances at her again, Jessica gives him a tiny smile. He blushes and looks down at the sand, and Jessica thinks she will look very nice in knee-length rose-shaded velvet.
As the afternoon wears on (Lauren's mom is coming to pick them up after five and they are all getting a little sunburned), some Native boys show up. Their frisbee hits Mike in the head by accident. Before long the two groups are no longer Kids From Forks or Kids From La Push but rather Kids Playing Frisbee or Kids Eating Chicken Salad.
Jessica is a Kid Eating Chicken Salad. There are various reasons for this. One is that she thinks sweating is overrated. Another is that the picnic bench has a very good view of the Kids Playing Frisbee, and the growth spurt that agrees with Mike also agrees with the Quileute boys.
Of course, one of the boys sitting across the table from her even looks good eating sandwiches. Jessica smiles at him, and he grins right back. "Hey," he says around a mouthful of food. "I'm Quil. Quil Ateara."
"Jessica," Jessica replies. She points to the other girl sitting at the picnic table. "This is Angela."
Angela nods; she's eating chicken salad like Quil, but she's far too polite to speak with her mouth full.
"I'm Seth," pipes up the second boy who has sat down with them. He's a lot younger, someone's baby brother or a tagalong or both. "Can I have some chips?"
"Sure." Jessica pushes the bag across the table; Seth dives in happily. "How come you guys aren't playing frisbee?"
"I'm hungry," says Quil.
"I suck," says Seth.
"I'm sure you don't suck." Angela's voice is gentle; she's got two little brothers at home. Jessica has never stopped marveling at the other girl's patience.
"Nah, I really do." Seth seems perfectly cheerful about it. His face is already orange from the Doritos. "It's okay. My sister's teaching me. She says once I don't have little hands I'll catch better."
"I bet you'll be great," Angela says encouragingly.
Seth beams.
Quil swallows before he speaks this time. "So, how's your summer going?" he asks, pushing shaggy black hair out of his face.
"It's okay." Jessica grabs a Dorito of her own. "Kinda boring. Everyone's out of town for vacation. Eric's at Disneyland and Tyler's in Vancouver and Bella went to Phoenix--"
"You know Bella?" Seth's eyes light up instantly, like Jessica has just announced she knows the President or Santa Claus. "Bella Swan? Really?"
"Uh, yeah," Jessica says. "We go to school together." She glances at Angela, perplexed; Angela shrugs. "Why?"
"I know her too." Seth is almost vibrating off the bench with excitement. "I haven't seen her in forever."
"Oh." Jessica does, in fact, remember that when they were in elementary school Bella's babysitter or something was on the reservation. "Well, she always spends all summer in Arizona--" which Jessica thinks is dumb because who spends the summer in the desert "--but she comes back in the fall, if you're looking for her."
Seth waves frantically at the kids racing around in the sand. "Jake!" he shouts. "Hey, Jake!"
One of the boys takes his eye off the game just long enough to glance over. He's lanky and his hair is held back in a ponytail that touches his shoulders. "Yeah?"
"Guess what?" Seth points at Jessica and Angela. "They know Bella!"
The boy freezes for a moment. Then his face darkens. "Who cares?" he snaps back at Seth, before running after the frisbee, which has sailed right past him and landed in the surf.
Jessica has a sixth sense about gossip. "Backstory," she demands, turning to Quil.
Quil shrugs. "They hung out when they were little or something. I dunno. I never spent much time with her." And he takes another bite of chicken salad.
"They were friends," Seth says. He looks dejected at Jake's dismissal. "We were all friends."
Jessica has never known Bella to stop being friends with anyone. But she feels bad about the look on the kid's face, so she rummages in the cooler. "Want a popsicle? We've got grape and we've got cherry."
That's all it takes to cheer Seth up.
***
Legends (Charlie)
Charlie would kill Billy Black if Billy Black wasn't so hell bent on killing himself.
Charlie thought their friendship has reached its low point just after Sarah. Between his wife's death and his rapidly worsening illness, Billy's temper had started swinging like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; after he shouted that it was Bella's fault Jacob had all but moved into the garage, Charlie almost clocked him. It had taken Harry hours of persuading to get them back on speaking terms.
(It wasn't like Charlie hadn't tried, but no cajoling, reassurances, or threats had made a lick of difference. The one time he'd asked Sue to talk to her Bella had disappeared out the window and not come back until nearly midnight, dirty and hypothermic from her twelve hours hiding in the forest. She'd been grounded for two weeks, but she'd also made her point. Nothing short of duct taping her into the cruiser was going to get her back to the reservation.)
Finally Billy wound up hospitalized for four days after nearly dropping into a diabetic coma. (Sue got pulled from his rotation after it was discovered she was deliberately missing veins when inserting his IVs. I'm gonna stick the idiot until he learns his fucking lesson had been her defense.) After that he finally started following doctors' orders and checked his blood sugar, ate better, never forgot his insulin -- all of which was monitored by Jacob, who'd come out of the garage to make sure he didn't lose another parent.
(You have to take these, Bella said when Charlie had gone to visit during Billy's recovery, shoving a bag of peanut butter cookies into his hands. You have to. There's no sugar. Say you made them. She had literally begged. Please, Dad, they won't eat them if you don't, they won't want them if they're from me but they have to have some cookies, please, please do this, I want them to have cookies. So Charlie claimed improbable baking responsibility, and since then Bella had sent at least one diabetic-friendly food a week under his name.)
In the three years since things had been better. Not the same, of course -- there was a big, Sarah-shaped hole in all their lives that no one knew how to fill -- but better. Saturday morning fishing was once again the best part of the week.
Until now.
"Why the hell aren't you helping?" Charlie paces through the Clearwaters' living room, kind of wishing there was something he could shoot. He's been putting in a lot of hours at the range recently. "Don't tell me you buy all this crap, too."
In thirty years Charlie has never seen Harry look so uncomfortable. "The new guy is creepy," Harry says evasively.
"Uh-huh. 'Creepy' is a great reason to let yourself lose a leg. Rachel says he's having trouble driving." Charlie still has nightmares about the bloodstained sheet that covered Sarah's body, the mangled station wagon he'd photographed for the accident report.
"Yeah, I know. And I know Billy needs to see a doctor... it just can't be this doctor."
"Doctor Cullen's brilliant," Charlie says flatly. (He'd thought for sure that kid on the motorcycle wouldn't make it -- he'd been stunned she was still alive at all when he arrived on the scene -- but damned if she hadn't been back on her feet in two weeks. Carlisle Cullen is a fucking miracle worker.) "But if he doesn't want to see Cullen then he should damn well go to someone else."
"The entire hospital is--"
"What? Creepy? Sue's still working there!"
"Yeah, and I wish she wasn't." Harry stands up, and his face is grave. "Look, buddy, I'll talk him into going to Port Angeles. But you need to drop this. It's something you can't understand."
Charlie can feel a vein in his forehead throbbing, and he wonders if he's going to need a doctor before this is all said and done. "Fine. I can't understand. But when Billy winds up in a wheelchair because he's feeling superstitious then it's on the two of you."
He knows he doesn't know about lots of Quileute things. That's the way it is, the way it's always been, the way it's always going to be. But if Charlie knows anything it's that there's no story anywhere worth getting yourself killed over, and Billy Black is trying to do just that.
They've already buried someone too early.
"It's on the two of us." Harry is subdued. "Go home, Charlie. Say hi to Bella for me."
When Charlie stalks back to the cruiser he waves to Leah. She is perched in the maple tree reading Thoreau. She doesn't wave back.
***
How To Cry In History Class (Bella)
"The new kid is staring at you," Lauren whispers.
Bella is too fascinated with her European History textbook to pay attention. "Did you know the Romans used to eat peacock tongues?"
"Ew!"
"And they threw away the rest of the bird. It was a sign of wealth and status." This book is a treasure trove of information. Until now Bella has read literature almost exclusively, but now she's in college-prep classes. There's so much more to learn. High school is amazing and it's only the first day.
Lauren is clearly less concerned about the Ancient Romans than she is about the newest residents of Forks. "Seriously, Bella, it's weird. Did you piss him off?"
That gets Bella's attention. "What do you mean?"
Lauren nods toward the back of the room.
Bella looks.
Edward Cullen is staring. Viciously. As though he'd like nothing more than to murder her and bury her body in the woods. His hands are clenched into fists around the edge of the desk.
She turns around so fast she almost falls off her chair. "I haven't said anything to him," she whispers to Lauren, her face flushing deep red.
"You must have done something."
"I..." Bella can practically feel Edward Cullen's glare boring into her back. "I don't think so?" she says uncertainly.
Bella, like everyone else, had been intrigued when she'd heard five new kids would be joining them in high school. No one ever moved to Forks. To have not just one new student but five was unprecedented.
And they were so good-looking. Impossibly good-looking. Destroy your self-esteem just by being in the same room good-looking. Peek around the corner of the hall just to catch a glimpse good-looking.
Bella had done the latter between first period and second period. She'd peered out of a classroom, trying to hide behind the door, trying to get a decent look at these inhumanly gorgeous siblings. She hadn't succeeded -- she'd only seen their backs as they huddled together by their lockers.
Maybe Edward Cullen had seen her? Maybe he was angry that she had been spying?
Embarrassment and shame creeps through her body, starting in her face and running all the way down to her toes. That has to be it; she'd been incredibly rude. Goggling like they were some sort of circus attraction when she'd never even spoken to them.
She'd just have to apologize right after class. The thought catches her breath and she has to fight down the urge to hyperventilate -- approaching someone she doesn't even know and talking to them -- but it is the polite thing to do. She'll just... do it fast, before she has time to blush too much.
"Maybe he likes you," Lauren says as the teacher stands up from his desk and starts passing out papers.
Bella turns to look again, just for a quick second. Edward Cullen is beautiful, like one of the marble statues in the Grecian mythology book Mrs. Hughes had lent her last year (Bella had promised to walk to the elementary school and visit at least once a week, there was no way she could do without Mrs. Hughes). Edward Cullen is dazzling -- so dazzling he doesn't look real. He doesn't look alive.
And he is much, much too pale.
"He's not my type," she whispers back to Lauren, and then the history class begins.
Bella waits just outside the classroom after the bell rings. The people she's known her entire life file past her, juggling notebooks and wrestling with backpacks. She takes several deep breaths, and then Edward Cullen appears in the doorway. He stops instantly at the sight of her.
"Hi." Her voice squeaks but at least it's audible. "I'm Bella Swan."
His nose wrinkles.
"I... I just..." She falters, quailing under his furious black eyes. She forces out in a rush, "I'mreallysorryIspiedonyou."
Edward Cullen's lip curls in obvious disgust, revealing blinding white teeth. Then he turns on his heel and storms down the hallway faster than she's ever seen anyone move.
Bella tries -- she always tries, she tries so hard -- but she bursts into tears anyway.
(She is getting better about it. She hasn't had a complete breakdown since two summers ago; she'd been staring at the endless shelves of feminine products, her gut twisting in wretched pain, her father standing red-faced next to her and unable to help, and she'd known that Mrs. Black would have known what she should buy. She'd cried so hard she'd had to run out of the store. Her father had come back to the car with one of everything and a big tub of vanilla ice cream.)
"Wow." Lauren is standing nearby, waiting for Bella to come to algebra. "What a jerk."
Hiccuping, Bella thinks maybe she doesn't like high school after all.
( next)
Author: audreyii_fic
Fandom: Twilight (Team Jacob)
Rating: T
Characters: Swan Family, Black Family, Clearwater Family
Genre: Humor/Angst/Friendship
Warnings: Occasional language.
banner courtesy of lilabut
Summary:
Renee leaves Charlie and Bella. AU drabble series.
( beginning)
First Beach (Jessica)
The weather decides to finally admit it's August, and everyone goes to spend the day at First Beach.
Mike Newton is looking at Jessica Stanley and Jessica Stanley is pretending not to notice. Jessica Stanley has curly brown hair that shines and boobs that have grown two sizes this summer (so far), so Jessica Stanley is getting very good at pretending not to notice when boys look at her.
She does peek at Mike out of the corner of her eye when she's sure he's not looking, though. And she thinks his growth spurt agrees with him.
It is only two and a half months until the very first homecoming dance of Jessica Stanley's high school career. So when Mike glances at her again, Jessica gives him a tiny smile. He blushes and looks down at the sand, and Jessica thinks she will look very nice in knee-length rose-shaded velvet.
As the afternoon wears on (Lauren's mom is coming to pick them up after five and they are all getting a little sunburned), some Native boys show up. Their frisbee hits Mike in the head by accident. Before long the two groups are no longer Kids From Forks or Kids From La Push but rather Kids Playing Frisbee or Kids Eating Chicken Salad.
Jessica is a Kid Eating Chicken Salad. There are various reasons for this. One is that she thinks sweating is overrated. Another is that the picnic bench has a very good view of the Kids Playing Frisbee, and the growth spurt that agrees with Mike also agrees with the Quileute boys.
Of course, one of the boys sitting across the table from her even looks good eating sandwiches. Jessica smiles at him, and he grins right back. "Hey," he says around a mouthful of food. "I'm Quil. Quil Ateara."
"Jessica," Jessica replies. She points to the other girl sitting at the picnic table. "This is Angela."
Angela nods; she's eating chicken salad like Quil, but she's far too polite to speak with her mouth full.
"I'm Seth," pipes up the second boy who has sat down with them. He's a lot younger, someone's baby brother or a tagalong or both. "Can I have some chips?"
"Sure." Jessica pushes the bag across the table; Seth dives in happily. "How come you guys aren't playing frisbee?"
"I'm hungry," says Quil.
"I suck," says Seth.
"I'm sure you don't suck." Angela's voice is gentle; she's got two little brothers at home. Jessica has never stopped marveling at the other girl's patience.
"Nah, I really do." Seth seems perfectly cheerful about it. His face is already orange from the Doritos. "It's okay. My sister's teaching me. She says once I don't have little hands I'll catch better."
"I bet you'll be great," Angela says encouragingly.
Seth beams.
Quil swallows before he speaks this time. "So, how's your summer going?" he asks, pushing shaggy black hair out of his face.
"It's okay." Jessica grabs a Dorito of her own. "Kinda boring. Everyone's out of town for vacation. Eric's at Disneyland and Tyler's in Vancouver and Bella went to Phoenix--"
"You know Bella?" Seth's eyes light up instantly, like Jessica has just announced she knows the President or Santa Claus. "Bella Swan? Really?"
"Uh, yeah," Jessica says. "We go to school together." She glances at Angela, perplexed; Angela shrugs. "Why?"
"I know her too." Seth is almost vibrating off the bench with excitement. "I haven't seen her in forever."
"Oh." Jessica does, in fact, remember that when they were in elementary school Bella's babysitter or something was on the reservation. "Well, she always spends all summer in Arizona--" which Jessica thinks is dumb because who spends the summer in the desert "--but she comes back in the fall, if you're looking for her."
Seth waves frantically at the kids racing around in the sand. "Jake!" he shouts. "Hey, Jake!"
One of the boys takes his eye off the game just long enough to glance over. He's lanky and his hair is held back in a ponytail that touches his shoulders. "Yeah?"
"Guess what?" Seth points at Jessica and Angela. "They know Bella!"
The boy freezes for a moment. Then his face darkens. "Who cares?" he snaps back at Seth, before running after the frisbee, which has sailed right past him and landed in the surf.
Jessica has a sixth sense about gossip. "Backstory," she demands, turning to Quil.
Quil shrugs. "They hung out when they were little or something. I dunno. I never spent much time with her." And he takes another bite of chicken salad.
"They were friends," Seth says. He looks dejected at Jake's dismissal. "We were all friends."
Jessica has never known Bella to stop being friends with anyone. But she feels bad about the look on the kid's face, so she rummages in the cooler. "Want a popsicle? We've got grape and we've got cherry."
That's all it takes to cheer Seth up.
***
Legends (Charlie)
Charlie would kill Billy Black if Billy Black wasn't so hell bent on killing himself.
Charlie thought their friendship has reached its low point just after Sarah. Between his wife's death and his rapidly worsening illness, Billy's temper had started swinging like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; after he shouted that it was Bella's fault Jacob had all but moved into the garage, Charlie almost clocked him. It had taken Harry hours of persuading to get them back on speaking terms.
(It wasn't like Charlie hadn't tried, but no cajoling, reassurances, or threats had made a lick of difference. The one time he'd asked Sue to talk to her Bella had disappeared out the window and not come back until nearly midnight, dirty and hypothermic from her twelve hours hiding in the forest. She'd been grounded for two weeks, but she'd also made her point. Nothing short of duct taping her into the cruiser was going to get her back to the reservation.)
Finally Billy wound up hospitalized for four days after nearly dropping into a diabetic coma. (Sue got pulled from his rotation after it was discovered she was deliberately missing veins when inserting his IVs. I'm gonna stick the idiot until he learns his fucking lesson had been her defense.) After that he finally started following doctors' orders and checked his blood sugar, ate better, never forgot his insulin -- all of which was monitored by Jacob, who'd come out of the garage to make sure he didn't lose another parent.
(You have to take these, Bella said when Charlie had gone to visit during Billy's recovery, shoving a bag of peanut butter cookies into his hands. You have to. There's no sugar. Say you made them. She had literally begged. Please, Dad, they won't eat them if you don't, they won't want them if they're from me but they have to have some cookies, please, please do this, I want them to have cookies. So Charlie claimed improbable baking responsibility, and since then Bella had sent at least one diabetic-friendly food a week under his name.)
In the three years since things had been better. Not the same, of course -- there was a big, Sarah-shaped hole in all their lives that no one knew how to fill -- but better. Saturday morning fishing was once again the best part of the week.
Until now.
"Why the hell aren't you helping?" Charlie paces through the Clearwaters' living room, kind of wishing there was something he could shoot. He's been putting in a lot of hours at the range recently. "Don't tell me you buy all this crap, too."
In thirty years Charlie has never seen Harry look so uncomfortable. "The new guy is creepy," Harry says evasively.
"Uh-huh. 'Creepy' is a great reason to let yourself lose a leg. Rachel says he's having trouble driving." Charlie still has nightmares about the bloodstained sheet that covered Sarah's body, the mangled station wagon he'd photographed for the accident report.
"Yeah, I know. And I know Billy needs to see a doctor... it just can't be this doctor."
"Doctor Cullen's brilliant," Charlie says flatly. (He'd thought for sure that kid on the motorcycle wouldn't make it -- he'd been stunned she was still alive at all when he arrived on the scene -- but damned if she hadn't been back on her feet in two weeks. Carlisle Cullen is a fucking miracle worker.) "But if he doesn't want to see Cullen then he should damn well go to someone else."
"The entire hospital is--"
"What? Creepy? Sue's still working there!"
"Yeah, and I wish she wasn't." Harry stands up, and his face is grave. "Look, buddy, I'll talk him into going to Port Angeles. But you need to drop this. It's something you can't understand."
Charlie can feel a vein in his forehead throbbing, and he wonders if he's going to need a doctor before this is all said and done. "Fine. I can't understand. But when Billy winds up in a wheelchair because he's feeling superstitious then it's on the two of you."
He knows he doesn't know about lots of Quileute things. That's the way it is, the way it's always been, the way it's always going to be. But if Charlie knows anything it's that there's no story anywhere worth getting yourself killed over, and Billy Black is trying to do just that.
They've already buried someone too early.
"It's on the two of us." Harry is subdued. "Go home, Charlie. Say hi to Bella for me."
When Charlie stalks back to the cruiser he waves to Leah. She is perched in the maple tree reading Thoreau. She doesn't wave back.
***
How To Cry In History Class (Bella)
"The new kid is staring at you," Lauren whispers.
Bella is too fascinated with her European History textbook to pay attention. "Did you know the Romans used to eat peacock tongues?"
"Ew!"
"And they threw away the rest of the bird. It was a sign of wealth and status." This book is a treasure trove of information. Until now Bella has read literature almost exclusively, but now she's in college-prep classes. There's so much more to learn. High school is amazing and it's only the first day.
Lauren is clearly less concerned about the Ancient Romans than she is about the newest residents of Forks. "Seriously, Bella, it's weird. Did you piss him off?"
That gets Bella's attention. "What do you mean?"
Lauren nods toward the back of the room.
Bella looks.
Edward Cullen is staring. Viciously. As though he'd like nothing more than to murder her and bury her body in the woods. His hands are clenched into fists around the edge of the desk.
She turns around so fast she almost falls off her chair. "I haven't said anything to him," she whispers to Lauren, her face flushing deep red.
"You must have done something."
"I..." Bella can practically feel Edward Cullen's glare boring into her back. "I don't think so?" she says uncertainly.
Bella, like everyone else, had been intrigued when she'd heard five new kids would be joining them in high school. No one ever moved to Forks. To have not just one new student but five was unprecedented.
And they were so good-looking. Impossibly good-looking. Destroy your self-esteem just by being in the same room good-looking. Peek around the corner of the hall just to catch a glimpse good-looking.
Bella had done the latter between first period and second period. She'd peered out of a classroom, trying to hide behind the door, trying to get a decent look at these inhumanly gorgeous siblings. She hadn't succeeded -- she'd only seen their backs as they huddled together by their lockers.
Maybe Edward Cullen had seen her? Maybe he was angry that she had been spying?
Embarrassment and shame creeps through her body, starting in her face and running all the way down to her toes. That has to be it; she'd been incredibly rude. Goggling like they were some sort of circus attraction when she'd never even spoken to them.
She'd just have to apologize right after class. The thought catches her breath and she has to fight down the urge to hyperventilate -- approaching someone she doesn't even know and talking to them -- but it is the polite thing to do. She'll just... do it fast, before she has time to blush too much.
"Maybe he likes you," Lauren says as the teacher stands up from his desk and starts passing out papers.
Bella turns to look again, just for a quick second. Edward Cullen is beautiful, like one of the marble statues in the Grecian mythology book Mrs. Hughes had lent her last year (Bella had promised to walk to the elementary school and visit at least once a week, there was no way she could do without Mrs. Hughes). Edward Cullen is dazzling -- so dazzling he doesn't look real. He doesn't look alive.
And he is much, much too pale.
"He's not my type," she whispers back to Lauren, and then the history class begins.
Bella waits just outside the classroom after the bell rings. The people she's known her entire life file past her, juggling notebooks and wrestling with backpacks. She takes several deep breaths, and then Edward Cullen appears in the doorway. He stops instantly at the sight of her.
"Hi." Her voice squeaks but at least it's audible. "I'm Bella Swan."
His nose wrinkles.
"I... I just..." She falters, quailing under his furious black eyes. She forces out in a rush, "I'mreallysorryIspiedonyou."
Edward Cullen's lip curls in obvious disgust, revealing blinding white teeth. Then he turns on his heel and storms down the hallway faster than she's ever seen anyone move.
Bella tries -- she always tries, she tries so hard -- but she bursts into tears anyway.
(She is getting better about it. She hasn't had a complete breakdown since two summers ago; she'd been staring at the endless shelves of feminine products, her gut twisting in wretched pain, her father standing red-faced next to her and unable to help, and she'd known that Mrs. Black would have known what she should buy. She'd cried so hard she'd had to run out of the store. Her father had come back to the car with one of everything and a big tub of vanilla ice cream.)
"Wow." Lauren is standing nearby, waiting for Bella to come to algebra. "What a jerk."
Hiccuping, Bella thinks maybe she doesn't like high school after all.
( next)