𝘊𝘙𝘐𝘔𝘚𝘖𝘕 ° 𝘑𝘈𝘚𝘗𝘌𝘙 𝘏𝘈𝘓𝘌 ✓

04 | EASY DECISION |

edited: 7/9/2020

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FORKS' UNFORTUNATE CLIMATE of never ending cloudiness and rain made for a very disastrous day for Bella Swan. She slipped twice on the ice that had formed on the sidewalk as she found herself knocking on the door of the red house beside her at seven in the morning. She heard a loud thud, an expletive curse in Spanish, and the slam of a door. Bella's eyes widened.

Rory Aden opened the front door with a breathless smile and a toss of her long, thick wavy hair. Her backpack hung from one shoulder and her hoodie was folded over one arm. "Good morning, Bella!" Rory's red lips curved at the slightly startled and confused deer-like expression of her neighbor, who she had begun car-pooling with. "Ready to go?"

Bella's brows furrowed together. "Are you?" she asked genuinely.

Rory simply laughed.

As Bella drove them to school, Rory ruminated upon the last few days thoughtfully. Her first week in Forks was interesting to say the least. Between all the chaos of moving, beginning friendships, and the whole mess of the mysterious Cullen family, Rory was very much surprised by how fast the week passed her.

"It's Friday, Bella," Rory announced as they pulled into the school lot. "I'm planning on heading to Port Angeles for some much needed retail therapy with Jess tomorrow. Wanna come with?"

Bella looked dubious, but she nodded. "Um, sure. Maybe. It'd be a nice change," she said vaguely as she focused on parking alongside the school sidewalk, wanting to avoid the icy lot as much as possible. She was very grateful her dad had put chains on her tires more than ever—just on their ride to school they had passed a car that had skidded into a ditch.

"Change? Bored with Forks already?"

The graphite pencil in her hand made its last lines as she finished the detailed profile of Bella.

Bella shook her head. She was embarrassed by what she was about to admit, but the bond between Rory and her was something she never had the fortune of having before. It was easy to confide in Rory.

"No, it's just- you'll think I'm crazy- but I've been dreaming of Edward Cullen and he just drives me out of my mind—"

They both glanced at the corner of the lot where a silver Volvo was parked in its usual spot. The entire family seemed to have just arrived too. Rory locked eyes with the now back to gold ones of Jasper Hale before quickly averting them. It was a weird habit of theirs; they always locked eyes with each other but pointedly made no effort to speak to each other.

Despite sharing almost every class together, Rory hadn't made any progress with Jasper Hale. In fact, they seemed to regress; Jasper truly hated speaking to her and Rory knew when she wasn't liked. Other people seemed to like her a lot though.

Aside from her first day overconfident blunder when she finished her lunch amongst the flawless beings (even though the Cullen's trays went untouched), Rory and Bella had decided to stick to the table with Jess, Eric, Angela, Mike and their friends. Alice's invitations hadn't relented, but both girls agreed one bout of awkward silences and icy glares was enough for a lifetime. Plus, it was really disarming to try to eat when most of those around you were just staring at you like you were a science experiment.

It was easier that way.

"Nice dreams, Bella?" Rory waggled her brows as she jumped out the truck onto the icy gravel.