Surviving High School

I Had the Time of My Life

A/N: Two chapters left, and I'm working on some outtakes for this story as well.

....

Sunday afternoon, I grabbed my camera and bag o' goodies, and headed off to Angela's to meet up with her and Ben. It had been a week since I'd seen them, and I felt bad about that. I truly was a horrible friend. I'd been so caught up in Edward and hanging with the Cullens, that I hadn't made time for my best friends. Angela pulled me into a tight hug, after answering the door, and I returned it.

"I've missed you!" she exclaimed, holding onto me for a minute.

"I've missed you, too!" I told her.

I stepped inside and was immediately wrapped up in a hug by Ben. After returning his hug, we sat down on the couch. I pulled the gifts I'd gotten them out of my bag and handed them over. I'd gotten Ben a leather bracelet, much like the one I'd gotten Seth. It was manly enough, and Ben seemed to like it. For Angela, I'd bought a beautiful throw blanket handmade by a Native American woman. It was beautiful, and Angela thanked me profusely upon seeing it.

"Alright, Miss Bella. Picture time," Ben said.

Angela had set her laptop up on the coffee table, and I inserted the memory card. The next two hours were spent looking at pictures, with me telling the story behind each one.

"Oh, Bella! What a cute picture!" Angela squealed upon seeing a picture of me and Edward that Esme had taken. We were standing on the dock at the cabin, the lake, and the mountains behind us. Even I had to admit, it was a great picture. Edward was standing behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist, while I leaned against him. I'd printed off a copy of the picture and had put it in a frame that rested on my bedside table. There were still times, when I couldn't believe that Edward was mine.

After removing the memory card, I turned to Angela and Ben and asked them what they'd done over break.

"Well, I went and visited my mom," Ben told me quietly. I reached over and gave his hand a squeeze. I knew how hard that must have been for him. "It was surreal. Seeing her like that, well . . . there were more than a few tears," he said.

"Oh, Ben. I'm sorry you have to see her like that."

He nodded, then changed the subject, talking about the fact that he couldn't believe that I'd gone hiking and hadn't fallen off a cliff or hurt myself. We talked and hung out until quarter to nine, when both Ben and I had to head home. I gave them both a hug and told them I'd see them tomorrow.

....

March quickly turned into April, which in turn quickly became May. There had been a few James sightings, but nothing substantial. Unfortunately, Charlie ended up having to pull the few men he'd had working on the case due to some hikers who'd been found murdered in the woods near La Push. The town was in a dither about it. Murders were reserved for the likes of the big city, not small town life. A few days after the bodies had been found, the whole school was talking about it.

"I can't believe that two people got murdered! That's like crazy! This is Forks for crying out loud!"

"My mom won't let me go out after dark now. She's terrified that I'm going to be murdered walking down the street."

Charlie had gone into over-protective cop mode and refused to let Seth, Sue, or me go anywhere by ourselves. I knew that he was just looking out for us, but the murders had really put him on edge. From what I'd overheard him saying, the bodies had been found badly mutilated, ripped apart, and drained of blood. Maybe Mike's sparkly vampires had done it. I was sitting in English class, paired up with Mike for a writing exercise, when he brought up the murders.