ch-4 :( A new world)

I woke to the faint smell of eggs and bacon. It caressed my nose in such a way that made me slowly take a deep breath before I opened my eyes, yawned, and stretched. Warm covers caressed my body, inviting me to continue my slumber.

"Oh!" a female voice exclaimed and I slowly turned towards the sound. "I didn't expect you to be awake already. Bella said you had a rough night." I couldn't believe my eyes and rubbed them, just to see if I was still dreaming. Luckily Renée Dwyer - Bella's mom - didn't notice.

She looked almost like a duplicate of Bella - or perhaps I should say that it was the other way around - she had shorter hair though, it was slightly lighter than Bella's, and she looked older - but not more than in her mid-thirties, there were laugh lines along her mouth and eyes, which were a brilliant blue (Why was I surprised by this?) and they were starring right back at me as if they were the ones of a child.

"Um," I answered, not having anything smarter to say at the moment. I was still tired. What time was it anyway?

Renée smiled. "I guess you're still a bit sleepy then," she said while winking at me. "Here, I brought you this." It was then I noticed the tray in her hands and the plate that was placed on top of it. She maneuvered through the room to hand me the breakfast in bed.

Yum! I smiled at Renée and thanked her as she handed it to me before she went out of the room. Immediately after, I began digging into the meal. It was delicious probably due to Bella's cooking skills. I knew for sure that Renée had not cooked this, since - according to Bella - she was a terrible cook, and I finished eating sooner than I liked. Maybe I can bribe Bella into making some more sunny-side-up eggs.

Setting the tray - with the plate on top on the floor, I decided that I might as well get up and go find out where Bella was hiding. After finding a decent outfit in my bags, brushing my teeth, and freshening up in the bathroom just across the hall, I decided that it was time to go downstairs and greet Bella's family.

Well, part of it.

I took the tray with me as I went out of the room, into the hallway, and down the stairs to my left. It didn't escape my notice that the house was very light and open and very cozy. I liked it very much, and wondered who had come up with the interior design - Renée or Bella? Or perhaps it was a mix? The sunflowers on the lower part of the wallpaper in the hallway had to be Renée's idea.

As I finally descended the stairs, I could hear a faint sound of mumbling just to my right, and I walked nearer to the closed door, just so would be able to hear if it was anything about me. My curiosity never ceased to amaze me.

she's a really great friend of mine, dad." Bella's voice said, and I was certain I detected the faintest hint of a lie since we weren't really friends yet. I leaned my head even closer to the door.

"No, no, she told me even before I wanted to go." again I noticed her lie, and I was sure Charlie did too. Even if I hadn't known Bella, I would have heard that she was lying. I shook my head. Who was she trying to fool?

Her dad? I reminded myself.

"Thanks, Char-dad. I'm sure she'll appreciate that." This time I frowned. What would I appreciate? I was going to ask Bella about it later. And have her ask why you were listening in? Spying? Maybe you should just wait for her to tell you herself. Or at least wait until you're in Forks to see what it is. I sighed in defeat at those thoughts.

"Of course they have," Bella suddenly exclaimed. "She wouldn't be here if they hadn't." Right then I was sure that if I had been a comic book character, there would have been drawn a big, fat question mark above my head. Who had done what, so I could be here? It was another lie, of course, but I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. My parents? I wondered...

"Katherine?"

I jumped at least a foot into the air as I started, turned around, and immediately stepped away from the door - almost dropping the plate off the tray in the process. Coming towards me from another room was Bella's mom, and I prayed that she hadn't caught me sneaking around.

Yes," I answered just a bit out of breath. Then I remembered that I had to be polite and address her correctly, so I quickly added, "Mrs. Dwyer."

Renée shook her head while she dismissively waved her hand. "Oh, please just call me Renée. It makes me feel so old when people call me that," she smiled at me and was still shaking her head a little.

"You don't look that old," I blurted, and it was the truth. "You really shouldn't worry about that," I added, so my comment wouldn't seem too rude.

"Aw, thanks. You're a sweetheart," Renée smiled widely at me, and at that moment Bella walked through the door I had been leaning against earlier, eavesdropping. I noticed that she raised her eyebrow at her mother, and I was sure Renée was giving her the "I-really-like-your-new-friend" eyes. My friends at school usually were at the receiving end of it whenever I was visiting. I guess I was just good with parents in general. "Did you handle things with Charlie?" Renée then asked.

Bella nodded. "Yeah. He says it's fine as long as her parents are okay with it." I felt just a little bit put out that they would talk about me in the third person when clearly I was standing right next to them and listening. But I also knew that she didn't mean it like that. She was just answering her mother's question.

"Great," Renée smiled widely. "We leave in a couple of hours girls; I still need to buy your plane tickets." And then she turned around and walked right back the way she had come in the first place.

Bella and I shared a look. "You haven't even bought the tickets yet?" I shrieked. That was really beyond me. What if there wasn't enough space in the plane for me? What if I had to take the next one? At least you wouldn't have to bump into Edward Cullen and have your mind read, reminded myself. I suddenly found myself hoping there weren't enough seats left on the plane.

"My mom never really does anything until the last moment," Bella shrugged while taking the tray out of my hands by reflex I guessed - and started to walk towards what I believed to be the kitchen. I blindly followed her.

"So," I began, hoping I could get a real and normal

conversation going on between us. "What's it like living in Phoenix?"

Bella went to the sink and started washing the plate off. "I thought you said you knew everything about me," she threw right back at me. I was sure I noticed her smile as I went to stand beside her, while I leaned my back against the counter.

"I said I knew a lot about you, not that I knew every detail," I laughed and grabbed a towel to dry the plate as she finished cleaning it.

I noticed her hesitate or perhaps she was just deep in thought before she opened her mouth to speak again. "Well, I went to a school with over one thousand students, I've lived with my mom here for as long as I can remember and she recently married Phil." I noticed that she didn't once remove her eyes from the dishes she had now started doing. "So yeah I have a great life in Phoenix." Was that sarcasm I noticed her use?

"Bella," I gently said, while resting my right hand on her left shoulder after putting down the dried plate. "Those are all superficial things." Right then she finally turned to look at me. "I was talking about how you feel about living here."

Bella sighed while closing her eyes. "Not for much longer."

A sad smile graced my lips, as I finally grasped where this conversation was going. "Are you unhappy about deciding to move in with your dad?" I asked, hoping to get the right reaction this time and a useful answer.

"Mom and Phil are going to be on the road, and I don't want to be a burden to them." That hadn't been the answer I was looking for. Again Edward had been right in "Midnight Sun". She never did what you expected her to. And she certainly knew how to avoid a question.

"But what do you want?" I asked, hoping that this time she would at least not be so selfless. Another thing Edward had observed spot-on - or perhaps I should say Stephenie had written. I squeezed her shoulder gently.

"I want my mom and Phil to be happy," she answered, and I had the serious urge to slap myself in the face in sheer annoyance. How did she do that? How could she be so selfless and irritating at the same time? All I wanted wasτο know now she was Teeling, and sne was trying to πιαε her emotions behind her selflessness! Ugh! But I wouldn't fall for it, I would make her admit to me that this wasn't what she wanted since I already knew it wasn't. It was written down black on white. I wanted to get to know her as a person and not as a character in a book. So I needed her to open up to me to trust me. I was already screwing the story up big-time just by being here, so why not get to know the real Bella while I was at it? Not the one telling the story, but the one experiencing it.

"That's not what I'm asking," I said and I felt her stiffen just a little, as my hand was still gently resting on her shoulder. "How do you feel about this Bella? I know you're not okay with it." I looked her in the eyes, daring her to lie or avoid my question again. I knew for sure that my eyes could be very scary - the exact opposite of hers - since they were a piercing green. In fact, everything about me was almost the opposite of Bella. My hair was gingery red, my eyes were green and although I was a redhead, I could still get a pretty nice tan if I wanted. I was also slightly taller than her.

Bella's head dropped in what I assumed was defeat, while she sighed. "I want to stay in Phoenix," she admitted at last. "I'm going to miss everything - the heat, my mom, Phil, this house. Even my school."

I smiled at her finally admitting this. For me, it was a sign that this would be the beginning of a great friendship and that she started to trust me.

Bella slowly lifted her head and smiled sheepishly. "I'm being very selfish, aren't I?" she asked. "I mean of course I'm going to miss my mom and such, but I'd rather have her and Phil stay here in Phoenix instead." Her eyes moved to the floor in shame.

I snorted. "You? Selfish?" I shook my head and finally lowered my hand. That was never going to happen. "When vampires begin to sparkle," I automatically added as a reflex.

Bella gave me an odd look. "When vampires begin to sparkle?" she asked while raising her eyebrows.

Damn! I thought, and I knew I had done it again. This

story wasn't going to survive long with the level I had

already screwed it up. Way to go, Katherine, just way togo...

It wasn't many hours later that we were finally sitting in Phil's car which thankfully had air conditioning, like inside the house and were on our way to Phoenix airport. I immediately found out one thing about Phoenix, Arizona that I did not like: the heat. It was too hot and dry. So hot in fact that I had broken out sweating the second I stepped out of Bella's house.

Thank God Forks was going to be cold and wet and rainy. More to my taste. The weather in Salem was somewhat like the weather in Forks, only less rainy and cloudy, so I was glad that I wasn't going to linger in the heat for too long.

I turned to look out the right passenger window of the car and tried to make time fly by counting the different cacti and plants we were passing. I gave up after five minutes, simply because there were so many. Nature here was a beautiful, yet depressing sight. Almost everything was made up of desert and looked dead. There was almost no sign of life as we drove through the empty desert.

"So Katherine," I heard Phil ask and moved my head to look at him. "Phoenix must be very different for you than Salem." He looked a bit younger than Renée, at least in his mid- or late twenties, and was muscularly built - but that was probably due to his baseball career.

I bit my lip as I wondered how it was best to answer without hurting anyone's feelings. "It's warmer than Salem," I finally allowed myself to say. It didn't give my opinion away and was a statement too.

"It sure is," he happily said, and I noticed him smile as my eyes moved to look at him in the rearview mirror. Then he turned more serious. "Though I have to say that I was a bit shocked when Bella told us you had come over in the middle of the night. But I guess you couldn't get another flight booked, eh?" he winked and I just nodded in response.

After a while of silence, Renée spoke. "I've never really noticed her talk about you either," I couldn't see her face in the rearview mirror but I was sure Renée was frowning just a little. "How long is it that you've known each other?"

My answer came immediately, "I was an exchangestudent in Bella's class at the end of last year." I looked at Bella for a moment, who just seemed a bit shocked at my statement at first, but then the look in her eyes told me she understood where I was going with this. "We started talking and then continued to e-mail each other." I smiled at Bella - who smiled back at me, if not a little stiffly - to reassure Renée the story was true, and of how real and plausible my lie sounded.

"Oh," Renée exclaimed. "You should have told me about her Bella, she could have visited sooner." Bella looked a bit sheepish - though it was probably more at the point that I had just told a blatant (to us) lie as Renée turned around to look at her daughter.

"Sorry, mom," Bella inaudibly mumbled. I hoped she knew that this was for the best. If I had told her mom the truth, then she would have definitely thought I was lying. Bella and I were going to talk about this later.

There was no further conversation, as we continued our drive towards the airport.