Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Catharsis

By Mama4Dukes

Chapter 12:

After their return from Hawaii, the combined Swan and Uley families had a busy week. Alison and Charlie had a ton of work to catch up on, while Bella and Sam were busy with the prom committee finalizing details for the event, which was on the Saturday following their return.

Although busy, the family was quite content and generally had no issues adjusting to their new situation. They did, however, receive one distressing piece of news. Josh Uley had been released from prison, and was now on probation, living in a halfway house in Tukwila, which was almost four hours away. They didn’t let the news bother them too much. There was strength in numbers and Josh would probably avoid the area, especially because part of the probation agreement included not approaching Alison or Sam in any circumstances.

Today, though, the family was focused on the prom. In actuality, the females of the family were focused on it while the males were parked in front of the TV watching a double header.

“Sit still, Bella! I’m trying to do your hair,” Emily scolded. “I don’t want to burn you with the curling iron.”

It was Saturday, and Emily had come over to get Bella ready for the prom. Alison was also in the room, steaming her gown one more time. Charlie was supposed to be getting Sam ready, but she knew for a fact that they were sitting downstairs watching the game and noshing on chips and salsa.

“I was thinking of doing a half up, half down style on you.”

“Let me show you my prom picture from last year, and you’ll see how bad of an idea that is.”

Bella grabbed a photo of the drawer to show her.

“Oh, no, no, no! Okay, let’s do an updo for you then.” She put some elaborate braids and twists into her hair and secured everything with a few bobby pins and lots of hair spray. “Perfect. You look beautiful! Let me just curl the wisps I left in front and then we’ll work on your makeup.”

“Wow! I like it.” “So do I. Emily, you’re so talented!” Alison complimented. “I think I might have to have you do my hair going forward. Which salon do you work at?”

“Salon de Beauté on C Street.”

“Excellent.”

“I can give you a haircut today, if you’d like. I have nothing better to do, and it’s nice to get away from La Push.”

“Do you feel uncomfortable there?”

“I do. Do you remember how I accused Bella of being an outsider when I first met her?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that was just me putting up my defenses because I feel like an outsider. Many people on La Push don’t trust me because I’m not from their reservation. I’m from Neah Bay.”

“Believe it or not, I do understand how you feel. There was a time when I felt like an outsider on my own reservation. It was after my ex-husband was sentenced to prison, after he nearly beat me to death. I was shunned by many on the reservation with the exception of a few families.”

“Surely, my Aunt Sue didn’t shun you.”

“Oh, she did. To this day, we don’t get along too well. The Uley family blames me for bringing shame onto the family. They felt that I should have remained silent about the abuse, rather than having one of their own sent to jail.” Alison smiled. “But enough about me, let’s get Bella ready, and then you can cut my hair. I will tell you a story about me.”

“It’s a life-changing story, Emily. I promise,” Bella assured her. “And Alison is the best listener in the world.”

“Oh, now, you’re exaggerating. Let’s get some foundation on you.” Alison started spreading liquid foundation on Bella’s skin.

Emily shrieked. “Nooooo! Stop! You’re doing it wrong!” Emily started wiping the foundation off of Bella’s face with a towelette.

“I am? This is how I’ve been doing it since I started wearing makeup during high school.”

“My mom did it that way until I taught her the correct way. You need to moisturize and then apply a foundation primer.”

“What on earth is a foundation primer?”

“A foundation primer creates a smooth canvas for the foundation, which in turn creates a smooth canvas for your blush, contour, and highlighting.”

“Contour and highlighting?”

“Yes, to slim down your face in certain places and accentuate other areas.”

“Do we have to do all of that?” Bella asked. “I think a little blush and mascara go a long way.”

“This is prom!” Emily scolded. “And you want to look better than you did last year. You looked as white as a vampire in that picture, not that I’ve ever seen one in person, but you know what I mean.”

“Okay, you can do my face. I don’t want to look like a vampire.”

“Thank you, Bella.” Emily hugged her, and then went on with working her magic.

“What’s that cream that you’re putting on Bella’s eyelids?”

“Oh, that’s eye makeup primer. It prevents your eye makeup from creasing and running.”

“Really?”

“Yes, and it also helps the eye shadow blend. Close your eyes, Bella,” Emily instructed as she applied eyeliner followed by mascara. “And now for some lipstick. There, you look beautiful-like your natural self, only enhanced.”

Bella looked in the mirror. “Hey, that does look pretty nice. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Oh, that’s absolutely gorgeous!” Alison agreed. “Let’s get you in your dress. You have to be at the prom early because you’re part of the committee, right?”

“Right.” She slipped into her gown, which featured a fitted pink lace bodice and a chiffon skirt in the same shade.

“You look perfect, honey.” Alison kissed her cheek. “Should we go downstairs to see Sam?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Uh, Bella?” Emily stopped her for a second.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for being a genuine friend.”

“Are you kidding me? You’re so easy to be friends with.” That comment elicited a smile from Emily. “Maybe next week, we can go and do something fun-just you and me.”

“I’d like that, Bella. I’d really like that.”

“Then it’s a done deal.”

They went downstairs to greet Sam who was sitting with her father in his towel, watching the baseball game. Clearly, he had just showered.

“Samuel Levi Uley!” Alison rarely raised her voice, but today she had reached the end of her patience. “Why aren’t you ready?”

“Uh…”

“Ali, we were watching the game. The Mariners just hit a three-run homer!”

“Yeah!” Sam agreed.

“You get upstairs and change into your tux right now or so help me God!”

“Right. I’m going now.” He stopped to check out Bella. “You look beautiful.”

Five minutes later, Sam was dressed in his tux and ready to go.

“This is so unfair! It took me all day to get ready and you take like a minute.”

“Yeah, but I had to do your chores today, too.”

“Serves you right.”

Charlie stood up and cut a look to both kids, indicating that the bickering needed to end. It stopped immediately.

“You look gorgeous, kiddo. I have something for you.” He placed a beautiful wrist corsage made of pink roses and baby’s breath on her wrist.”

“Thanks, Daddy.”

“You’re welcome, kiddo. Now, go and have fun.”

Alison placed a pink boutonnière on the lapel of Sam’s tuxedo jacket. They snapped some photos and sent the kids off to prom. Charlie went back to watching the game, and Alison linked her elbows with Emily and said, “Now, let’s go and talk downstairs.”

“I’d like that.”

“Good.”

---

“You really do look beautiful,” Sam told her when they arrived at the high school.

“So do you.”

“Aw, Bella. I’m sorry I wasn’t ready when you were. I just got caught up in the game. I really do appreciate all the effort you put in to look beautiful for me.”

“Oh, stop. I’m not mad at you. It’s such a petty thing to be mad over. I love you.”

“I love you.” He leaned in to kiss her.

“Do not muss my hair or you will pay!”

“I’ll muss it later,” he said, kissing her playfully, several times all over her face and neck.

“Hey, you, two! Quit making out and get in here and help us!” Tyler called. He opened the passenger side door for Bella and held out his hand. “Let me you help you out, my sweet.”

“Oh, Ty, you’re such a gentleman.” She got out of the truck. “Just hang onto me because I don’t want to fall in these heels.”

“Samantha had the same problem. Well, come on.” He closed the door behind her. “We were just waiting on you two. We need help finishing the balloons.” When Sam caught up to them, Tyler said said, “Man, I’m glad you suggested we get the majority of the work done yesterday. This prom committee stuff is a lot of work.”

“It’s just one more push tonight, and it’s done.”

“And then we can relax until finals. Phew!”

“Not really, we promised Principal Greene that we’d be part of the graduation planning committee, remember?”

“Why the hell do we have to help plan our own graduation?”

Sam scowled at Tyler. “Because you volunteered our services in all your eagerness!”

“Oh, yeah.” He sighed. “Me and my big mouth.”

“Yeah, you and your big mouth.” He patted his friend’s back. “Come on, buddy. Let’s get this thing set up so we can enjoy the prom.”

---

Prom turned out to be magical. Parent volunteers showed up to help so the prom committee could actually enjoy the prom. Bella recalled that this prom was much better than last year’s prom, during which she had a broken leg, and was wearing a dress she detested. Sam, too, recalled that his first prom, which had been his junior prom, was not as memorable as this one. Leah had been a complete and utter shrew, complaining left and right about how she felt uncomfortable being among the Hok’wat students at Forks High. Supposedly, everyone had been looking at her funny, and whatnot. In reality, it had all been just Leah complaining bitterly about everyone and everything. She did that a lot less now, he noticed, but then again, he still avoided her as much as possible.

As far as the pack was concerned, they still met with his great-grandfather once a week. He was slowly getting to know him and his great-grandmother. They would usually take him out to lunch after the meeting, and they would just talk. Sam actually liked them. His great-grandfather was super smart, and had loads of good advice to give. His great-grandmother was exceedingly kind, and she enjoyed pampering him.

Embry still refused to acknowledge them, his great-grandparents told him that it was his prerogative to do so, but the door was open. While Sam understood Embry’s actions, he still thought it was his loss. By not getting to know his great-grandparents, Embry was losing out on, not only years of family history, but years of history as well.

As far as Sam’s relationship with Embry was concerned, it had recovered back to its norm. They were brothers, after all, and they couldn’t allow the toxicity to continue. Besides, Leah and Bella were now playing nice to each other. They were still far from being the best of friends, but there was no animosity between them. In any case, as Bella had put it, the animosity had been all on Leah’s side.

Principal Greene approached him at that moment to talk to him.

“Hello, Sir.”

“Sam, you did a great job with planning the prom. The kids have all told me that it was mostly your doing that made this such a success.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I’m proud of you and what you’ve accomplished. I’m here to tell you today that after discussion with the faculty and staff, we’ve come to an unanimous decision.”

“What’s that, sir?”

“We’ve selected you to be the class valedictorian.”

“But sir, I’m a high school dropout.”

“No, Sam, no.” He shook his head. “You showed your maturity when you returned to high school to complete your education. You proved your resilience when you made new friends, participated in extracurricular activities more suited for you, and succeeded more than you ever have before academically. This year, your grade point average is a 4.2. Legally, since you returned to school, I have to count your grades up until the point you left us. Believe it or not, when you left, you had a 3.99 GPA. You will graduate with at least a 4.0, and I can’t imagine you not succeeding in college. Have you decided where you’re attending?”

“No, Sir. Next weekend and the one after, my parents are going to take Bella and me to look at the colleges we were accepted to because we have to decide by the first of May.”

“And are you and Bella attending college together?”

“It’s still up in the air, but most likely.”

“You do what’s best for you, Sam.” He extended his hand to him. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Mr. Greene.”

With a big smile on his face, Sam turned around to find Bella heading straight for him.

“Dance with me?”

She looked so beautiful. He was a lucky guy. She was his forever, gifted to him by the spirits. He took her hand. “Lead the way, my beautiful princess.”

He was happier than he’d been in ages. Life was terrific.