Chapter One ~ A Helping Hand
Waking with a start, my alarm buzzing loudly in my ear, panic overtook every fiber of my being. I jumped out of bed rushing to get dressed for my first day of my Senior year. I didn’t do anything special with my appearance, threw on some jeans and a t-shirt, some tennis shoes and pulled up my hair in a pony tail, that’s it, and started to walk down the stairs- that was before I heard Kylie screaming at the top of her lungs at me, stopping me on the top step..
“Arabella, are you ready yet? Hurry up! We’re going to be late for the first day of school!”
“I’m coming, yesh, Kylie, give me a second! Damn, you’re not the only one that has to get ready you know, give me a break!” I yelled back. God I just wish for once she would treat me like a sister, let alone an actual person.
I hated having to ride to school with my sister. But, the family I lived with couldn’t afford another car. I had been saving for one for almost three years now and I still didn’t have enough.
I ran down the stairs and grabbed my backpack and headed out the door. She was already waiting for me in the car, making these huffing and puffing noises until I got in and buckled up. We drove to school in complete silence, well, except the radio cranked up so loud I could barely hear myself think. When we pulled into the parking lot I got out right away, barely even giving her a chance to put the car into park.
It’s crazy to think that I’d be out of here in ten months to start college. I got into Yale! I also got into Stanford, the University of California, and a couple of more colleges. My sister called me a braniac. I did have a 4.0 GPA, but I was no braniac. I just studied a lot, what else was there to do? I didn’t have many friends; I wasn’t athletic like Kylie, I was just me.
“Hey, Kelly!” Kylie yelled.
“See you later Kylie!” I yelled after her. She totally ignored me as always, she just walked off to meet her friends and her boyfriend. She was the head cheerleader and dating the football star here at our school in Forks, Washington.
I hated it here, but it was home. It rained so much that it felt like I was damp all the time. I wanted to get away, you know, see the world, actually I just wanted to get away from my family. I needed away from all of them. I was their adopted daughter, the one that could do all the work and they could do nothing, the one that they didn’t have to give anything too. I hated living with them and couldn’t wait to go to college to get away.
I walked to my first class of the day…History. My favorite subject. Mr. Carson was an amazing teacher. Walking in, taking my seat in the second row, Mr. Carson smiled at me and went ahead with his teaching. My day went like it had for all the other years here at Forks High School.
I had History first then English, French, Calculus, then it was time for Lunch. I walked into the lunchroom and smiled at some of my friends, that’s the table I would sit at, actually it’s the same table we always sat at, since we were freshmen that is. I got my food and took my seat. When I looked up I found a group of kids staring at me.
“Hey Angie, who are they?” I asked my best friend. Angie had been my friend since the first day I came to this school, we had just moved here from Arkansas and I was a backwards kind of person, I wouldn’t talk to anyone unless they talked to me. Well, she talked to me and we became best friends right away.
“Oh, there’re new, they’re the Carpenter kids. Their dad is a new doctor around here. Why are they staring at you?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I asked you who they were.”
Right when I said the word ‘were,’ one of the boys got up from his seat; he was tall, but very muscular. He was beautiful for a guy, like a male model you saw on the pages of magazines. All I could do was stare. He saw me and he smiled right at me, but I, of course, put my head down as soon as our eyes met, but I kept looking. I noticed he was pale. He took his tray to where you were supposed to dump them, without eating a thing, throwing it all away. Lifting my head, I asked Angie the question that was bubbling up on my tongue.
“Where did they come from?”
“ Somewhere in Alaska, I heard,” she told me.
“ Alaska, really?” I paused thinking of Alaska, it was a place I so dearly wanted to go. “WOW!” I whispered through my lips before I could contain it.
“Yeah, I know right!” Angie whispered back.
The rest of my day was uneventful. I went to my last two classes and then headed out to the parking lot and to my sister Kylie’s car. When I was walking out of school, the Carpenter kids were staring at me again. There were four of them. They were just sitting at a picnic table talking to each other and smiling at me.
They all were devastatingly gorgeous. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them. I looked down and went to walk away to get in the car so I could go home, work on my homework and watch my baby brother, but I ran right into Tyler. I hated him, he was mean to everyone. I even tried to apologize for running into him.
“ I’m so sorry Tyler, I didn’t mean..” he interrupted me.
“ Watch where you’re going stupid girl.” He pushed me away from him. I fell to the ground, all my books scattering all over the sidewalk, ripping the knees of my jeans. I would pay for that now, the only good pair of jeans I had and now the knees in them were messed up. Shit.
As I moved around to pick up my books, the guy who had smiled at me in the cafeteria was at my side. I slowly let my eyes travel up his body. His shoes, his legs, his crotch… Shit better get up to his face before he thinks I’m some stupid girl whose never seen a guy before. Hurrying up to his face, our eyes met for the slightest second then he was back to staring right at Tyler.
“You don’t treat a lady like that,” he said to Tyler point blank and very serious. He wasn’t up in Tyler’s face like most guys do, but you could tell he meant business. “You do not lay your hands on her again.” He made the most evil face I had ever seen. Then a very menacing sound came from his throat. Tyler just looked back at him, a blank expression across his face, blank except for Tyler’s eyes were huge, so were mine.
“ Now, tell the lady you’re sorry.”
“Sorry, Arabella…um it won’t happen again,” he said staring at the ground, kicking an invisible rock. I was about to tell him sorry again, but the beautiful boy shook his head at me and Tyler walked away.
He knelt down next to me and picked up all of my books for me. All I could do was stare at him. He smiled at me again, stood up and reached his hand out to me. I took it and he helped me up off the sidewalk, his hand was so cold, but I barely felt it, I was too stunned. Someone actually stuck up for me like that, someone who didn‘t even know me.
“Here you go,” he said to me handing me my books. “My name is Caleb. Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, thank you Caleb. My names Arabella.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” he said, smiling. “It’s nice to meet you Arabella, these are my brothers.” The way he said my name was like music to my ears, it flowed off his tongue like water flows in a creek. He motioned for his brothers to come over. “This is Thomas, Matthew, and Steven.” He introduced all of them.
“Nice to meet you all. I’d better go, my sister will be going crazy if I don’t hurry.”
“Bye Arabella,” Caleb said waving to me.
“Bye,” I said smiling at all of them.
That night I did all of my homework, ate dinner with my family, then got on the internet to talk to my friends, like I did every night of my boring life. My computer was a hand me down from Kylie, it wheezed when you tired to get onto the dial up internet. It was so old.
I had been trying to find my real family. If they were still alive. The only thing I did know was that my fathers name was Jonathan and my mothers name was Kathryn. That’s the only thing I knew. It was hard to find anything out with just two names, but I kept trying. I had been waiting for the actual copy of my birth certificate for three months. It should be in sometime this week, I hoped. I really wanted to know what my last name was. The next couple of weeks went by and it still hadn’t come.
I went to school everyday hoping when I got home it would be there. I started to get a little depressed. I was so frustrated and upset that I started to take it out on the people around me.
It was Monday at school when I really got worse. I was sitting at lunch and I didn’t feel like eating so I just got a soda and went to my table. Caleb saw me and smiled up at me. I couldn’t smile back.
Every time they thought I wasn’t paying attention they would be watching me. It was starting to creep me out a little, they all seemed to be nice. It was a nice day outside; cloudy, but it wasn’t raining yet, so I just got up from my table and walked outside. I went straight to a picnic table and sat down on the top of it, with my elbows on my knees and my hands on my chin. Was it such a bad thing for me to know about my real parents. Someone cleared his throat bringing me out of my thoughts. I turned to see Caleb standing behind me. He smiled and asked if he could sit down next too me, I just nodded.
“Are you okay, Arabella? You seem a little tense or something,” he asked me.
“IM FINE,” I took a deep breath got up and walked away with him following me. It stunned me a little that he was following me, I really just wanted to be alone. I didn’t really understand why he cared so much or why he was talking to me.
“You don’t seem fine.”
“Well that’s because I’m really not, will you just leave me alone please,” I said with my back towards him. I was standing by my sisters car, tears on the verge of overflowing from my eyes.
“Maybe if you talk about it, you might feel better.”
“ Fine, you want to know what wrong with me?” I spat out, turning on him. It all came out in a rush. “For one I’m adopted, my parents left me. I have no idea, none at all, who they were or what happened to them or even why they left me. Second, Im waiting for something to come to help me out on this subject and it hasn’t come yet and its driving me insane.” I just sat down on the sidewalk and started crying. He sat next to me.
“Wow. That’s a lot to think about at once,” he said
“You have no idea,” I said sarcastically. “That’s not even all of it. I got into Yale and Stanford, but I cant go to either of them. My adopted family doesn’t have that kind of money. So instead, I’ve decided to go to community college. It sucks.” I paused again to take a deep breath. “I worked my butt off to get the grades to go somewhere like Yale, and I get in and can’t go. How would that make you feel?” I can’t believe I’m telling a stranger this. I put my head in my hands and cried some more. He sat with me for a while, then he stood up.
“Why don’t you come to my house tonight? To get your mind off of things,” he asked me. I didn’t know why he was looking at me that way. I just smiled back.
“Can’t, I have things to do at home. I have two baby brothers I have to watch tonight. Thanks for asking though. I bet it would have been nice to think of other things,” I smiled up at him. He offered me his hand again to help me up, I took it and again it was cold, but again I really didn’t care or notice, he was so hot and talking to me…me!
I got up with his help and walked back into the cafeteria. Lunch was almost over so I headed to my locker to get my things for my next classes. The rest of the day was uneventful again. At the end of the day I walked to Kylie’s car and got in.
As we were pulling out of our spot in the parking lot, I noticed Caleb getting into a silver convertible. I can not believe I was talking money problems with someone who obviously has plenty. He must think I’m stupid. Just as I thought this he turned my way with a frown on his face shaking his head, looking directly into my eyes. As soon as our eyes met, I looked away. That was weird, it was like he heard what I was thinking, that’s crazy right? People can’t hear other peoples thoughts, right?
I just shook my head as Kylie hit the gas and we headed home. When I walked in the house my mom yelled to me from upstairs.
“ Arabella, you got a package today!”
“Where is it!” I yelled back. I got so excited. I was finally going to get to know my name… My whole name.
“ On the kitchen counter.”
“Thanks, Mom,” I called as I ran for the kitchen.
When I got in there, I went straight to the counter, it was upside down. I turned it over and it wasn’t what I was waiting for. It was a big envelope, on the front it said Harvard….
I didn’t even have to open it, it was a big package and I could feel the heavy paper from the outside of the envelope. Harvard was my dream school, a school I just got in and couldn’t go.
“Not another one…” I cried out. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I didn’t care that I was supposed to watch my little brothers, I didn’t care about anything any more. I ran out the back door and ran into the woods. I went to my favorite spot in Forks. It was this amazing meadow, I loved it, it was round and there were wild flowers every where. I could smell them before I even saw them. I could hear a brook somewhere around. I always came here just to think or even cry, but today I wouldn’t be able to do either. There was someone in my meadow….a girl, a beautiful brunette. Her back was to me, I tried to sneak away, but she heard me.
“You don’t have to leave, I was getting ready to go. Actually I was saying goodbye to my favorite place around here.”
“Okay, Im sorry I interrupted you. This is my favorite place too,” I told her.
“What’s your name?” she asked me with a smile.
“Arabella,” I told her. She smiled really big and giggled. Her voice flowed like music and her laugh was even prettier than her voice. “What’s so funny?”
“ Oh, I’m sorry, it’s just my name is Isabella, but people call me Bella. That’s why I was laughing!”
“ Oh, that is kind of weird, huh.”
“ Well, enjoy your time here Arabella. I know I always did.”
“Thank you, Bella.”
She left, faster than I thought possible, and I walked over to a spot I always went too, next to a large rock. I sat there for a long time just thinking how my life was unfair. I sat there crying, hating my so called life. I just wanted to be able to know the things I wanted to know and to be able to go where I wanted to go. Was that so much to ask? I didn’t think so, maybe I was wrong though.
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