Shifting Moon

Not long after talking with Emmett, the bell rang, and it was the end of the day. I wasn't going to do an afternoon workout because my schedule called for today to be a break day. I don't want to hurt myself by overdoing it. I figured I would boot up the old computer at home and see if I could find the posters and stuff I had been thinking about, maybe get some ideas to present to Alice for an art project. 

 Bella was less lost in her own mind today and we talked over our thoughts on school so far. I laughed when she compared Mike to a retriever-type dog and Eric from her first class was over-enthusiastic about talking to her. 

 "Poor Bella, boys are finally noticing you and you're treating them like garden slugs. How do you ever plan to play out one of your great love stories in all those books you read if you don't give the guys a chance? Or do you have your eye on someone different?"

 Bella flushed and snapped back, "What about you and Alice Cullen? As often as you wave at her I am surprised you haven't gone to sit with them. I know that table is at your optimal spot for your habit of keeping track of everyone that comes in and out of the cafeteria." She shot back at me rather defensively I thought. 

 I let her comment go as we were just pulling into the driveway, I remembered at the last minute that I wanted to look over her idle as I thought it was rather high. I could look up instructions for that while I was on the computer. 

 When I walked into the house, the first thing I did was turn the computer on. As old as it looked, I was sure it would be 10-20 minutes before it was ready to do more than crash. After dropping her book bag in her room Bella went directly to the kitchen and I followed in case she needed help with something. She put me to work wrapping potatoes in tinfoil after cleaning them as she pulled out several steaks and put some marinade on them. She turned the oven on placed the potatoes and then started talking about homework she needed to get done. 

 Leaving her to do her own thing I went to the computer and checked my email first thing. 

 Oh, an email from Renee.

 Hello Thomas, I hope you are doing well in Forks. I mean you must be as I haven't heard from you or Bella yet. Write to me when you get a chance. 

 Oh, another email from Renee.

  I still haven't heard from you or Bella? Write back and stop worrying me. 

 Oh, and a final email from an hour ago, also from Renee

  If one of you two don't respond to me by 5pm I will call Charlie. I can't believe you are gone less than a week and you have already forgotten about me!!!

I laughed and called for Bella as I quickly replied. Not sure what time zone she was in and fairly sure she wouldn't wait for 5pm anyway. 

 Hey Renee, nothing major is going on here as I'm sure you know. Forks is so sleepy it could second as a graveyard. We have been settling in and getting used to school the last couple days. I will jump aside so Bella can email you about her time. Love you!

 I quickly hit send and gave the computer to Bella to calm her overgrown child down. I loved Renee to death, but she was a quirky one, to say the least. An outsider would swear that there was a Freaky Friday situation going on and Renee and Bella swapped bodies the way the roles were reversed between the two. 

 Once Bella calmed down her mother, I did my stuff and went out to tune up Bella's truck. It didn't help much but maybe it would be less apt to break down in the future. Whoever took care of the engine did all they could, and I honestly would be looking for a new one already. When Charlie pulled up, I followed him into the house and saw Bella put the steaks onto the broil pan and into the oven.

 Charlie hung up his gun belt and went to change into his home clothes as Bella started to make a salad. I went to the living room and sat down to wait for Charlie to pick something to watch until dinner was ready. Once it was ready we all sat down to eat, about halfway through Charlie asked, "So what do you guys think of school here so far?"

 Bella told him about befriending Jessica and Angela, also bringing up Mike Newton, and naturally Charlie named off their parents and what they did.

 I brought up my budding friendship with Alice and talked about Jasper and Emmett a little. 

 Bella brought up how the Cullen's didn't seem to fit in well at school, and Charlie surprised us both by going on a sudden rant about how great it was to have Carlisle at the hospital and how there was never any trouble out of their kids "Witch is a dang sight more than I could say for some of the families that have been around these parts for a long time." He used his fork to drive the point home. 

 "I just don't understand the superstitious nature of some people" Charlie finished. It sounded like Bella had hit a nerve. Both Thomas and Bella took note of this and filed it away for the future. 

 The next few days passed in a haze of building a routine. Bella and I both started to get used to the school, the new people, and the weather. I met a guy named Ben that I enjoyed spending time with. He was a huge comic and anime nerd, so we had lots to talk about. He felt the same as me about the purity of classic anime that built the genre we see today. We looked past the big hits and talked often about the big failures like Evangelion and Scryde. His starter Anime was Mazinger Z and mine was Robotech, we were both delighted to have found a fellow connoisseur of the arts in this small town. 

 He was more into DC, and I was an Image Comics guy through and through, but we still got along despite his poor choices. He tried getting me interested in this light novel that was supposed to be an Amalgam of Beast Boy and Martian Manhunter, but he said the author was on a break for relocation and a new job. I promised to look it over if he started it up again. Sometimes life just gets in the way of the best of intentions. Still, I had never gotten into the world of Fan Fiction much until he recommended a few. It gave me something new to listen to on my runs. 

 Friday came along and I was looking forward to what Alice had come up with on our art project. When I got to class, I was the first one there besides Ms. Ross. Shortly after that, Alice came in and she had her usual smile when she saw me there already.

 "Someone is excited to figure out our project," Alice said as she sat down.

 "Sure thing Sprite, act like I am the only one excited here," I told her.

 "Ok, you got me there. I am super excited." Alice squealed at the end of her sentence. 

 "Ladies first, let's hear your ideas." 

Alice pulled out a folder that had way more pages in it than I thought we would make it through in a day, much less an hour. Luckily, she took pity on me.

 "All of these are ideas I came up with, but Jasper being a stick in the mud, suggested that I trim it down to 3 main ideas."

 "Tell your boyfriend that I love him a little bit right now. We would talk for days about the ideas in that folder, it's like four inches thick Alice." 

 "You want to complain or listen Thomas?"

 "Do go on, my wicked little fairy." I smiled at her.

 Alice pulled out a piece of paper and started talking. "My first idea was for us to both paint or draw the other in whatever style we wanted. My second idea was to build a miniature model of Forks from back in 1943 when it was recognized as a city. The last one I chose was, finding an art piece in our favorite movie and recreating it." 

 "Those are some good ideas; they make mine look like I didn't put much thought into them. I thought about the idea of us going to the Quileute reservation and trying to learn a new art form from them and showcase it to the class. Another thought I had was to draw each other in attire from any time frame before 1970 to choose from. My last thought was to combine between the two of us and paint the class together." 

 When I finished speaking, I noticed Alice had written down all the ideas and started to copy the page so we could each have one. I thought about just taking a picture with my phone, but her intense look made me drop that idea.