Shifting Moon

 Alice handed me the sheet of paper with all the ideas we came up with, she had a very business-like look on her face. "Here are the options we have selected. Now as we agreed we will think them over during the weekend and decide on Monday morning so we can start planning a schedule." 

 I was reading the paper over and admiring Alice's handwriting when Ms. Ross said the thing every student hated to hear. Pop Quiz. Though I found it fairly straightforward and easy, Alice still finished the 30-question test 15 minutes earlier than me. I noticed she was smiling a lot more than I had seen before, so I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote, {What has you so cheerful today, this is the first time I have seen you smile so much in the week I have been here.} I passed it to her and watched as she wrote back.

 {I found out this morning that Edward and Edythe will be coming back to Forks this weekend. I don't like it when my family is separated.} I read when she pushed the paper towards me. Before I could write anything, she pulled the paper back and wrote more. {I told Edythe that you had asked about her, and she was very suspiciously quiet about the subject. Want to hear the quick details about her? Her likes and dislikes?}

 When I read this, I flushed a little. {It's not like that Alice, she just looked upset with me the last time I saw her, and I wanted to clear it up.} Luckily, before Alice could comment further the bell rang. Time for Government class. As Alice and I exited the building I saw Jasper waiting as he sometimes does to walk Alice to her class. 

 After greeting Alice, Jasper turned to me, "Emmett tells me you are looking for a lift partner to help with your workouts a couple of times a week." His southern accent made the question more of a statement. 

 "I am. I have been at my current weight of 350 for longer than I like but no one at the station where I work out can spot me for more than that solo and getting two together just to help me seems too demanding on their time." 

 "I think I can help with that. If you give me a time and place, I would be happy to work out together. Only in the mornings though, I will need to get home to accompany my Hummingbird after school." Jasper smiled at Alice.

 "That would be great Jasper. I can't thank you enough. I was getting afraid I would be backsliding on my training." I was beyond happy to have found a workout buddy. I may not like people in large groups but being alone sucked. I had brought up working out with Ben, but he was unenthused, to say the least when I told him I woke up at 4:30 in the morning. 

 Crap, that reminded me. "I usually start my workout around 5 am with a good hour of running, but if you want to skip that part then I usually get to the police station around 6 am and stretch out for 15-20 minutes before starting my lift routine. That sound ok to you?" I asked half expecting him to back out. 

 "Tis no problem at all, I can park my bike at the station and come find you on your run and we can go from there." Alice was absolutely beaming at Jasper, as if she were just as excited as I was to see Jasper working out. We exchanged numbers so we could communicate as we walked to Alice's classroom, I left them together and headed to my class. Bella was getting more comfortable with the new school and dealing with people who treated her like the new shiny toy in the toy box. The only one I truly thought she got along with was the girl, Angela.

 I noticed that I had her in my biology class along with Ben and Eric. I had seen a few looks directed toward Angela by Ben, but I had yet to form a solid opinion on it. Eric made the mistake of coming to me almost demanding that I help him get together with Bella. His reasoning was that he was much better than Mike. I just told him that I stayed out of Bella's life in that regard, and she was the only one who had the right to decide who she liked. He was lucky that it wasn't one of the days I was struggling with my temper. 

 The rest of the day was nothing to speak of, just the normal heightened emotions of a Friday that the teachers tried to suppress with tons of homework. After the final bell of the day Bella and I went home, and I quickly did most of my homework before heading out to the police station for my workout. I found the packages I ordered on the steps when me and Bella got home and sure enough, they were the ones for the workout room at the station. Stopping at the kitchen table to tell Bella I was headed out, I noticed where she went wrong with her math homework. "You used the wrong theorem here." I showed her a list of theorems that were in the back of the book for reference and showed her a better theorem. She didn't seem very thankful, but it wasn't me who named that index (math for dummies).

 I kept the posters in their tubes and just ran with them in my hands all the way to the police station. I was happy that most people had gotten used to seeing me run and greeted them with a wave or nod as I ran by. The station was getting fewer calls about me and that was helpful. Gerie came in to help me put up the posters as every man knows that they are incapable of putting something on the wall without female supervision. I really didn't mind as she treated me like I expected a grandmother would do. Never having one though, I wasn't entirely sure. 

 I rode home with Charlie as was my habit after my evening workouts and Bella had a filling dinner of spaghetti waiting for us. I knew she loved it when we were satisfied with her cooking, it was one of the few places she would seek compliments and approval without embarrassment. Charlie also had a conversation with us about his habit of working weekends to make sure his deputies all had time with their families. As he didn't have one here usually, he took the hours but if we wanted, he would rework it, so he had more time with us. We both told him again, that we didn't intend our stay to interrupt his schedule. Both me and Bella enjoyed alone time, now that we had been here a week, I planned on exploring the forest area as it was strangely inviting to me for some reason. Bella would use the time to read and relax away from anyone. It's just the way we were. 

 I texted Jasper to see if we were still on for the morning workout and he replied that we were. With nothing else to do, I went to my room and finished my homework then spent some time meditating. I wasn't sure why, but lately, I had been feeling a restlessness in my body. At first, I shrugged it off as being in a new place but when I started to get comfortable here, I knew there was more to it because my body just kept heating up and my energy was much more than usual. 

 Another weird thing was that I started having trouble watching TV. Any quick movement had me wanting to react. Even when running, if I saw a bird scare up into the air due to my running by, I felt like I wanted to chase after it. I also started having trouble focusing inside buildings again. I thought I had worked through that years ago. But at the same time, this felt a bit different. When I suffered from my claustrophobia before, it felt like the walls got closer to me and wanted to suffocate me making it hard to breathe. But now it was more like the walls were a cage, stopping me from moving as I wished. The rooms were too small, I felt like I needed more room to run around in even if I was just sitting still. 

 I also noticed that most all of my free-hand drawings lately were of wide-open landscapes or forest areas I had glimpsed near the town. It was the reason I planned to go hiking tomorrow after lunch. Something was calling to me out there, was all I could think as I fell asleep.