Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

The Rabbit Meets The Magic Stick

By Mama4Dukes

Chapter 15:

“Hi, Justin!” an excited Gloria Silverwolf approached Paul. “You can sit here next to me,” she gushed.

Paul looked around the classroom and noticed that the only open seat was next to his mother. “Sure.”

“Do you like art?”

“Well, I’m not sure. I like to draw.”

Gloria nodded her head. “So do I.”

She opened up her sketch book and showed him some of her drawings. They were really good. Paul recognized some of the places. “This is First Beach, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is. Have you been there?”

“Just yesterday,” he quickly said.

“I love it in La Push. Don’t get me wrong, I want to travel and see the world, but I love La Push. It’s so serene and tranquil there. Is your reservation like mine?”

Paul didn’t know a thing about the reservation he was supposedly from. He needed Bella for that. “Um, no, not at all. Arizona is all desert.” He was pretty sure of that fact. “It’s very dry and hot.”

“Like how hot?”

“It’s like baking in an oven.” Paul nodded his head.

“Oh, yuck! So, no beach?”

“Not really.” He was hoping his mother would stop asking questions about Arizona because the only thing he knew about it was that it was in the desert and down south. He was saved when the instructor started class.

“Hello, kids! We have a new student today. Let’s give a big welcome to Mr. Justin Beaver from Arizona.”

Paul cringed when the teacher announced his alias-it was reason enough to want to go back to the future. What the hell had Bella been thinking? He probably shouldn’t have retaliated and called her Miley Cyrus. No, he should have; she deserved it for naming him that. At least Jacob had sense enough to tweak their names a bit to Justin Beaver and Maile Cyrus.

The kids applauded and Paul smiled and waved at them.

“Okay, so today we will be pairing off and sketching our partners. Justin, I see you’ve already met Gloria so why don’t the two of you partner up?”

“Sure, but I don’t have a sketch book.”

“Oh, sorry, I forgot that I have to issue one to you.” Mr. Ross opened a supply closet in his room and grabbed a sketchbook and a set of art pencils. “Here you go. These are for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Okay, kids. Get to sketching.”

Paul sat across from Gloria and opened his sketchbook up. He grabbed a pencil out of the small tin and admired it. He usually just drew with whatever was around. He had never owned a real sketchbook or real art pencils. He put pencil to paper, looked up at his mother, and started drawing. The first thing he noticed was that he had her eyes. He looked, for the most part, like his paternal grandfather, but the eyes belonged to his mom.

“Hey, Gloria, why don’t you trade spots with me?” Karen-the future Mrs. Newton-asked.

“Oh… um…” Gloria couldn’t really form a response.

“Come on, Gloria. He should be sitting with me.”

“Why?” Paul questioned.

“Because I want to work with you.”

“Yeah, well, in life we don’t all get what we want all the time now, do we? I’m happy working with Gloria.”

Karen seemed stunned that someone actually stood up to her. She had her mouth hanging open and she appeared to be trying to form words, although nothing was coming out of her mouth.

“Is there a problem, Karen?” Mr. Ross asked.

“Yes, I want Gloria to switch partners with me, but she won’t.”

“You usually pair up with Julia. Why do you want to change partners now?”

“I… I… It’s just that Justin here is new and who best to show him around the school than the head cheerleader.”

“Cheerleading has nothing to do with drawing. Now please sit down before I send you down to Mr. Lahote’s office for not cooperating in class.”

Karen narrowed her eyes at Gloria before returning to her seat. Paul could hear her complaining to her friend about not being able to partner up with ‘the hot new guy’ because Gloria stole him from her.

“You’re the one who forced Gloria to go and talk to him during lunch,” Julia whispered. “You even told her what to do.”

Paul shook his head and went back to work.

“Um, thank you for standing up for me,” his mother said.

“You shouldn’t let her push you around. She’s a bitch.”

“I know. It’s just hard for me to make friends, and guys… well, guys seem to only notice me for one thing.”

“For what? Your talent? Because that’s an awesome drawing of me.”

“Thank you. I really like to draw.”

“Yeah? What else do you like to do? I mean what do you want to do once you graduate?”

“Well, Julia wants to be a nurse and Karen wants to be a businesswoman.”

“I didn’t ask what they wanted to do, I asked what you wanted to do.”

“Oh, I’m too poor to have dreams.”

And that one statement was very eye-opening to Paul Lahote because he realized that someone had crushed all of his mother’s hopes and dreams. He was just like her-too poor to have dreams-until now. Now, he knew that he’d be able to crawl out of his hell hole because, for the first time, someone believed in him. That someone was Isabella Marie Swan. It was too bad it took time traveling to the 1980’s to figure it out… or was it?

He looked earnestly in his mother’s eyes. “You know, on my reservation, I’m known as the son of a drunk-a nobody destined for nothing. My mother walked out on my father when I was eight years old and he sunk into a spiral of depression and turned to alcohol. I don’t know what happened between my parents, but I do know they were too selfish to think about my needs. I grew up without any hope, but I know now that I can get out of my rut.”

“Oh Taha Aki! You’ve been alone for so long. Your parents certainly were selfish. At least my mother was thinking about me when she… well, it doesn’t matter. I would never leave a child alone-not after what happened to me.”

“Yeah, they were pretty selfish, but I think they loved me at one point. I’m pretty sure they did. Anyway, if I can crawl out of my hell hole, then so can you.”

“You don’t understand,” she whispered. “It’s not just me that I have to worry about. I have my little sister to raise, too.”

A sister? He has an aunt? “What happened to your parents?” Paul asked.

“They’re both in jail.”

He never knew that. He had no idea that his grandparents were criminals. He wanted to know what happened.

“Why?”

“My father is in jail for selling drugs and my mother is in jail for murder. She killed a man because… because he tried… he tried to do stuff to me.”

“Do stuff to you? What kind of stuff?” Paul questioned, fearing the answer.

“Um… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be telling you my problems.” She shook her head. “It was my fault anyway.”

“What do you mean it was your fault? What happened?” Paul could see the hesitation in her eyes. Who could blame her? They only just met this at lunch today. Why should she pour her heart out to him? “You can tell me. I’m trustworthy. You really look like you need to vent your feelings.”

She nodded her head and whispered, “My father owed money to his supplier. In exchange, he told him that he could… could have sex with me. My mom came home from work, found him in my room, and killed him before he could do stuff.”

Paul’s mouth popped open in shock. He truly had no idea that this was part of his family history. He had no idea at all. He was sad for her. He was sad for his grandmother that he’d never met. He also was ready to murder several people including his pathetic, drug-dealing grandfather. It was just so wrong! What kind of a father sells his own daughter for drugs? And what the hell was wrong with the elders? They should be defending his grandmother and helping his mother, not shunning them! “Can’t anyone help your mom? She was only trying to defend you.”

“That’s the thing. We’re too poor to afford a good lawyer and the elders have pretty much turned their backs on my family because the supplier came from a powerful family in my tribe. I work at Forks Outfitters as much as I can so that I can support my sister and me. Jasmine is only in seventh grade so she can’t get a job yet.” She smiled at Paul. “I hope I’m not depressing you with my problems. I never usually tell people about them. It’s just too shameful.”

“Hey, your problems aren’t too different from mine. And second, they are not shameful. You should take pride in the fact that you’re working, trying to stay afloat, and raising your little sister.” He glanced up to see Karen scowling at them. “Can I give you advice?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t hang out with that Karen girl anymore. She’s not a good person.”

“No, she’s not.”

“Maybe you should hang out with Linda? She seems nice.”

“Oh, she is. She wants to go to beauty school. I wish I could do something after high school, too.”

“You can,” Paul assured her. “You can do anything you want to. It just takes gumption.”

“You really are nice. I’m very sorry for coming onto you earlier. Karen made me.”

“Well, don’t do stuff just because Karen tells you to anymore. Tell her to take a hike. You need to stand up for yourself and be brave. It took a long time for me to figure that out.”

Before Gloria could reply, an ear-piercing scream was heard throughout the school, halting their conversation. The art students all dropped what they were doing-half terrified, half curious. Mr. Ross told the students to remain seated then checked the hallway. Just as he was closing the door, an announcement came over the PA system stating that the school was on lockdown as a precaution.

“I wonder what happened?” Gloria asked.

“I don’t know. I just hope everyone is safe,” he replied, thinking of Bella.