ghost

[shesepankh]

Kindergarten teacher Renée Higgenbotham Swan (36) was killed in a car crash one mile from her residence in Phoenix, AZ, January 9, 2005. She is survived by her daughter Isabella (16). Her service will be held at -

Bella has the entire obituary pasted into a page of one of her compilation notebooks but tends not to re-read past the first lines. It's repellent. The concept of obituaries is repellent. The funeral is over. Renée's vibrant brief life has been summed up over the course of a paragraph, and is also over.

Bella pretends to sleep on the plane. Her neighbor is talkative and she doesn't want to say shut up, my mom just died, because - what if it doesn't work? What if this news doesn't have the power to bludgeon everyone else into stunned silence the way it does Bella?

Charlie collects her. Charlie hugs her. Charlie doesn't make her talk. Good wonderful understanding quiet Charlie does not say a word. He takes her home. Her room's where she left it last August.

It's raining.

Bella stays home, moving in, moping, for a day, and then she shows up at school, gray-faced and withdrawn. First class is English. Okay, whatever.

The teacher wants her to introduce herself. Bella wants to yank on the skinny end of his tie until he regrets making her.

She stands at the front of the room and says that her name is Bella Swan and she's moved here to live with her dad. The teacher makes an impatient go on gesture and she stands there for a moment before robotically saying the same thing she produced at the beginning of the year in her old school in Phoenix when they were doing go-around-the-room-and-share-facts. "I'm one of those people who actually likes Shakespeare."

He lets her sit down.

She sits.

Comments

[castmyown]

"Only after that spat with your ex-friend in the hallway. Before then I just politely ignored it," challenges Darren.

[morethanimaginary]

"... Yeah, okay, some of the things I said there were pretty bad," laughs his sister. "But you love me anyway, right?"

[castmyown]

"No. Because it is definitely a thing that I can take back and not just automatic because you are my sister. You should be on your best behavior."

His words are dripping with sarcasm.

[shesepankh]

Bella smiles faintly.

Eric Yorkie, oftentime consumer of Darren's notes, swings by the table. "Hey man, can I get English, last Wednesday?" he asks. "Overnight but I'll photocopy it and give it back in the morning. New girl! Hi! I'm Eric. You're Bella Swan, right?"

"Right," confirms Bella.

[castmyown]

"Sure," agrees Darren easily. While he's retrieving notes, he gets to operation head off annoying inquisitive people.

"Is there going to be another spill of - what exactly was that? Coffee? Tea? Don't to it again, please, copying it over was annoying, I could barely read half of it."

[shesepankh]

"Coke, but it wasn't me, it was the cat," says Eric. "Sorry. It won't happen again. So Bella, what brings you to Forks?"

"Living with my dad," she says.

"Right, you're Chief Swan's kid!"

"Mmhm."

[castmyown]

Crap. So much for the gentle approach. He forgot how annoying Eric could be.

"Her mother," he says delicately, "recently passed away. That's why she moved here."

[shesepankh]

"Oh, yikes," says Eric, genuine if intrusive sympathy all over his face. "That sucks."

"Does it really," says Bella. "That would explain a lot."

Eric looks confused.

[castmyown]

Notes are retrieved in record time.

"Here you are," says Darren, handing over the notes and trying to defuse the situation.

[shesepankh]

"Thanks, Darren," says Eric. "I'm sorry about your mom, Bella."

"Thank you," says Bella mechanically.

[castmyown]

"You're welcome."

He makes a face at Eric that apologetically says, 'Sorry, maybe later there can be small-talk. Leave, please?'

Or that's what he's aiming for.

[shesepankh]

Eric backs off, notes clutched in his hand.

Bella eats a bite of banana.

[morethanimaginary]

"Right, so," says Savannah, glancing between all parties involved. "Want me to go - gossip and spread the news since you are a pretty wallflower, Darren?"

[castmyown]

He gives her a look. "Not a wallflower, but by all means. I'd appreciate it."

[morethanimaginary]

"But you don't dispute the 'pretty' part. How big-headed of you," she says, trying to lighten the mood for Bella. "Should I tell her about the dresses?"

There are no dresses.

[castmyown]

"The nonexistent ones that you like to imagine me in where I pretend to be a pretty princess? By all means, your strange fantasies are your own."

[morethanimaginary]

She snorts. "Right, whatever. Going to go feed the gossip-zombies. Bye, nerd."

[castmyown]

"Bye."

Off she goes.

"... Well now I have to try and be a one man comedy show. Should I juggle?" he asks of Bella archly.

[shesepankh]

"Can you?" she inquires.

[castmyown]

"No. That's what would make it a comedy show."

[shesepankh]

"I will do without. But I appreciate it."

[castmyown]

"You're welcome. I'm afraid I can't sing or dance either, so - I'm really quite terrible at this."

[shesepankh]

"It's your fault for missing all those extremely comprehensive and well-designed lessons in which they teach teenaged amateurs how to comfort each other in response to delicate highly emotional situations without losing sight of the fact that everyone processes things differently. Why is your attendance so bad?"

[castmyown]

Darren snorts with laughter. "Oh, you know, I'm a slacker. Just couldn't be bothered to care about other people. I am a heartless monster. Yup."

(He is a bad liar.)

[shesepankh]

"It will serve you right when you get a D in Impromptu Counseling and have to take Remedial Decency. They will walk you through the correct use of 'please' and 'thank you' and 'you're welcome' five thousand times. Then come the standardized tests."