Chapter One: Brand New Home

Author’s Note

Well… I promise there will be more Jeremy in the story.

Tell me what you think, and I hope you enjoy!

-Page Break-

Bella looked up at the sun, she closed her eyes taking in the warmth it offered her. She wasn’t even in the car yet, but she was already missing Phoenix.

“It won’t be for long, this is your final year in school.” A voice said from behind her. “It’s for your own good.”

“You say that as if I’m supposed to believe you.” Bella responded, holding her hands out in front of her, her palms up to the sun catching the warm rays of the sun in her skin. “You may be the one who spawned me, but you are not my father.”

“Get in the car, you need to get to the airport before you miss your flight.” He responded moving to get behind the driver’s seat.

Bella sighed and opened her eyes. “Of course, father.” She spat in anger as she walked over to the car and climbed in. She buckled up and placed on her sunglasses, ever since puberty she had been forced to wear them everywhere. An extreme sensitivity to light. She mentally scoffed at the idea, she couldn’t believe anyone had bought into the idea.

“Are you going to continue to pout the entire way to the airport?” Her father questioned.

“I don’t know, Luther,” She said his name with venom in her voice just to spite him. “Are you going to continue to control my life as if I were some sort of puppet to you?”

“Whether you like it or not, Maeva, you are my daughter and I will do whatever is needed to protect you.” Luther responded not removing his eyes from the road. He didn’t look at her even if he could feel the heat of her anger swirling around them in the car. She hated her birthname, loathed for him to use it, but that had never stopped him from using it.

“I told you not to call me that.” Bella said crossing her arms over her chest. “It is not my real name, and I hate it.”

“You were born Isabella Maeva, therefore you will always be Maeva to me. Not that horrible Marie your mother changed it to.” Luther responded with a slight smirk on his face, because he knew Bella hated her mother more than she hated him.

“Such a ridiculous name. Marie is one of the most used names in the nation. Of course she had to choose the name everyone else has already chosen.” Bella said with disdain. “I don’t understand why she always had to fit in with everyone else.”

“Your mother had a need to please others, I’m just pleased that it was a trait she didn’t pass down to you.” He responded looking at her from the corner of his eye and watching as she rolled her eyes.

“The only thing that woman gave me is birth, aside from that she gave me nothing.” Bella responded looking out the window to the car.

“Have you called Charlie and made him aware of your flying information?” Luther questioned, needing to make sure that there would be someone at the airport to pick her up.

Bella nodded, “Yes, I gave him the time my plane should be landing. He took off the afternoon to be sure he could pick me up.”

“And you’ve been enrolled in school already?” Luther responded.

“Yes, Charlie handled that. All my records have been sent over and the only thing needed is my presence Monday morning.” Bella responded she leaned her head against the cold window. “Have you heard from her?”

Luther sighed, “No, I haven’t. You shouldn’t worry yourself over her.”

“I don’t worry over her.” Bella responded quietly. “Now that she’s gone, I don’t want her to come back.”

“She won’t, that much I can promise you.” Luther responded, he looked at Bella as for the rest of the ride to the airport she was in silence. He cursed Renee for doing this to her. Cursed the woman for damaging their daughter, for making it close to impossible for Bella to truly trust someone. It made it hard for Bella to get close to anyone, the girl always believed that everyone around her would at some moment leave her.

When they arrived at the airport, Luther followed Bella as far as he could. “Have a safe flight, Maeva.”

Bella turned to him and nodded. “Goodbye, Luther.” She responded turning on her heel to leave. She didn’t look over her shoulder to see if he was still there. She knew he would be, that was simply just Luther. She wouldn’t look over her shoulder, that would just be admittance that she cared whether or not he was still there.

-Page Break-

Bella looked out the window of the plane. Her headphones were on and her seat was reclined fully. Leave it to Luther to buy her a first-class ticket, to her coach would’ve been just fine. Bella’s mind drifted off as she looked out of the window. Her mind losing the color of the sky and the clouds and drifted off to the night that changed everything.

Bella entered her home, she walked into the living room, seeing it completely empty. The sofa set that usually sat in the middle of the room along with all the pictures and paintings that hung on the wall were all gone.

Bella set her bag down against the wall and gently placed her cello case beside it. She walked into the small kitchen to see that all the appliances were gone as well. She hurriedly walked to the guest bedroom to see that it was empty as well. There was no bed, no paintings, it was as empty as the day they had first moved in.

Feeling her heart plummet Bella ran as quickly as she could up the stairs. She went straight to her mother’s bedroom to see that it was empty. Bella’s heart broke as she knew what this meant, she knew exactly what had occurred today. She slowly walked over to her bedroom and opened the door.

She felt her heart break into pieces as her room was close to empty. All that remained were boxes. Her bed, dresser, T.V., all her paintings were gone. She walked to the closest box and ripped it open, her clothes were tucked away. She continued to open all the boxes and noticed that inside was everything that had a trace of her. There were pictures of her from throughout the years, every Mother’s Day, Christmas and birthday gift she had ever gotten Renee were tucked away in the boxes.

Renee had taken everything from her, and all she left behind was the reminder that her own mother hated her. Bella fell to the floor and felt her eyes begin to spill over with tears. So much for a happy 18^th birthday.

Bella remembered waking up the next morning curled up in a ball on the floor. She didn’t move for the day, she skipped school, her cello practice, meeting with Luther and answering the phone. It wasn’t until about 6pm that Luther had broken into the home. He had found her i.n the same spot she had been since the day before.

She remembered clearly yelling at him, hitting him to put her down to let her get back to her wallowing. All the things she said to him had been cruel, and unneeded, but she never apologized.

Bella looked at the others on the plane, she would bet that they didn’t have anything to worry about. There was no life-threatening situation going on in their life, nothing that would force them to leave their home. She envied them, envied their obliviousness to the world around them, envied their normal lives, their everyday concerns. She would summarize that none of them ever had the life of another weighing down on their shoulders.

Bella took in a deep breath to help her tuck away all the feelings she was feeling in the pit of her stomach. She would land in a few hours, and she didn’t want Charlie to think that Renee had any effect on her. She wanted her dad to know that she was okay.

-Page Break-

Bella smiled as she saw Charlie standing awkwardly amongst the other people waiting for those boarding off the plane. She greeted him with a warm embrace. “Hey, dad.” She said stepping back from the embrace. “Thanks for coming to pick me up, I know it would’ve been easier if I had just taken a taxi.”

Charlie sighed, “You know I don’t trust the taxis in Seattle, they’re driven by men and women you just can’t trust. Besides, it’s been too long since I’ve seen you, I wanted to see my little girl as soon as possible.”

Bella smiled and followed him to the baggage claim. “It’s been six months. You remember, it was for my cello performance at the graduation last year.”

“You were beautiful in that.” Charlie said with a nod of his head. He already knew which bags were Bella’s, one was her cello case, and the other was a purple suitcase with her name engraved in white, he had given that to her when she was 12. He picked them up and handed the cello to Bella. “You sure you want to come here, I can afford to send you to some prestigious private school if you want. Forks high doesn’t have what you need, not when it comes to developing your musical talent. It’s your last year of high school, I just want to make sure you get the best options.”

Bella smiled, “It’s okay, dad. My music talent is fine, I’m here for you. I would rather spend time with my dad then be all by myself. The last couple months have been a bit lonely up in Phoenix.”

Charlie sighed, “I’m sorry about that, Bells. I don’t know what has gotten into your mother, who in their right mind would leave their child for some man.”

Bella shrugged her shoulders. “She was always a wildcard; I was not surprised that she left. I was surprised that she waited for so long, she had the right sense of mind to wait until I was 18 before she left.”

“I’m still so sorry about what she did to you, Isabella. You didn’t deserve that from her, I should’ve fought harder for custody a long time ago. I let you down kiddo.” Charlie said turning to Bella just before they reached the cruiser.

Bella smiled warmly at her dad. “You know as well as I do that if you had fought harder for custody she would’ve played dirty and exposed that you weren’t my biological father. She would’ve run your name through the mud, and I’m happy you didn’t give her the opportunity to do so. At the very least, I got to grow up with one normal parent in my life.”

Charlie smiled and unlocked the car for Bella. He set her suitcase in the back and watched as she placed her cello in the back seat. “Is this all you brought? Where is the rest of your things?”

Bella sighed, “She didn’t leave much, all she left were some clothes of mine that didn’t fit her, some pictures and other miscellaneous things. This was all the clothes I really had. The rest I either donated or threw away. No reason to carry around useless memorabilia.” Bella climbed into the car and buckled in immediately.

“We can stop by any store and get you some things.” Charlie said as he started the car, his heart broke for his daughter, Renee had taken literally everything away from her.

Bella shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, dad. I have what I need already, besides, I’m a simple person, all I need are a few t-shirts and a couple pair of pants. I can survive as long as I have my cello and you, I think I’ll be okay.”

Charlie smiled, Bella was far stronger than he thought her for. “I’ll leave you the cruiser one of these days so you can drive up to Seattle or Port Angeles to get some things you need. Just in case.”

Bella smiled, “Thanks dad.”

-Page Break-

Bella sat on her new bed, it was clear that Charlie had someone help him out with the redecorating of her room. It no longer held the pink walls, and the princess bedspread she had when she was a kid, not to mention there was no longer glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. Instead, the walls were a dark purple, the bedspread a light purple and the walls had a few paintings with inspirational quotes. Clearly, it was a woman that had helped Charlie do the redecorating. Even the desk seemed to be very feminine with it’s white metal and sleek outline.

Bella couldn’t help but smile at the idea of her dad awkwardly asking someone to help him redecorate. And she was more than grateful that he cared enough about her to do something like this. Cared enough to make her as comfortable as she could be in the small bedroom.

“Like your room, Bells?” Charlie questioned at the doorway. “Had some help picking things out for you, but Sue thought you would like it.”

Bella smiled, “She was right, I love it dad.” She moved off the bed and embraced him in a hug. “Thank you for doing this for me.”

Charlie awkwardly hugged her in return. “I’d do anything for you, Bells.”

Bella stepped back and smiled at him. “I’m going to get to unpacking, I should start getting ready to go to school tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to go. You could start on Tuesday.” Charlie responded.

Bella shook her head, “I’d rather start tomorrow, there’s no point in postponing it, I expect the whole town knows by now, Ms. Stanely can spread gossip proffesionally.”

Charlie laughed, “I’ll order us some pizza, mushrooms on yours?”

Bella nodded, “Yeah, thanks for remembering, dad.”

Charlie smiled, “How could I forget? I still remember when you were 8 and yelled at me that meat is murder, made me watch that documentary on the discovery channel.”

Bella smiled at the memory. “What can I say, once I got something in my head, I stuck with it.”

“I’ll call you when it arrives.” Charlie said with a smile as he turned and headed down the stairs.

Bella picked up her suitcase and placed it on her bed. She opened it up and quickly began to put it all away in her closet. There was so little, that she still had plenty of room in her closet so that she could add more later.

-Page Break-

Bella removed her cello from its case and sat down on the desk chair she had and prepared herself to play. She had taken to playing since she was in preschool, it was at first something she only did because Renee had forced her into it, but as she grew up, it was the only real thing that stayed consistent in her life.

Bella closed her eyes, she didn’t think of any specific piece to play, she merely let her hands do as they wished. She let her mind fall into the music, letting her head fill with nothing but the notes of the song.

It was in these moments that she could pretend that everything was normal. That she was just a regular 18-year-old girl, with no worries on her mind. She played for what seemed like minutes, but at the knock on the door she returned to the real world and realized she had been playing for hours.

“Just wanted to let you know I was going to bed, Bells.” Charlie said he looked at her cello. “As always, your playing was beautiful.”

Bella smiled as she set her cello on its stand. “Thanks dad, I guess I should get some sleep.”

Charlie nodded, “I’ll drive you to school in the morning. Have a good night, Bells.”

“Night dad.” Bella said watching him walk off, she got into her pajamas and prepared her bed to go to sleep. Once she was under the covers, her body became restless and her mind began to race with thoughts. She felt like she was going to go crazy with all the thoughts in her mind. She stood up and quietly walked over to her window where she placed on her running shoes and easily climbed down the tree.

She looked around and started running, her feet hitting the pavement causing a thumping sound in her ears. She didn’t want to think on this run, she had done enough of that throughout the day. All she wanted to do was run until she was tired enough to fall asleep with ease.

Bella sighed as her phone rang for the third time in the last ten minutes. “You’re draining my phone battery. What could you possibly want?”

“To know about your well-being.” Luther responded his voice in a monotone as he spoke.

“Well, I’m now in a town where I only really know and care about one person. I can’t do anything because you have put me on power arrest and have made me nothing more than a weak human. I would say that my well-being is at a very low status since the only good thing about my life so far is being with my dad.” Bella responded leaning against a tree, and looking up at the stars.

“You’re making a mountain out of an ant hill.” Luther responded with a deep sigh. “This is for your own safety, Maeva. They cannot track you if they cannot sense you, and you need to be somewhere where you are safe and out of their line of sight.”

Bella sighed, “Whatever you wish to say, father.”

“One day you will understand that what I am doing for you is for the best.” Luther responded with a heavy sigh. “You will understand in time, all you must do is keep yourself safe. And I did not remove your powers, you have done that yourself with your own anger and frustration.”

“Is that supposed to be some sort of life motivation to deal with my emotions? Because if so, I don’t need your help I can handle my emotions well enough on my own.” Bella responded with anger. “Did you merely call me to lecture me on my life?”

“Of course not, Maeva.” Luther responded in exhaustion. “I merely want to make sure that you’re in a healthy state of mind and that you’re not driving yourself to insanity.”

“Rest assured, I’m perfectly sane, or at least I will be until tomorrow when I’m going to be forced to start over in a new high school where I know absolutely no one.” Bella said as she stood and took in a deep breath. “If that is all, I have to get some rest.”

“Good luck, Maeva. I’ll call you tomorrow evening once you’re done with school.” Luther responded.

Bella sighed, “And I’ll debate whether I answer the call or not.”

---