It took me only one trip to get all of my stuff upstairs. I only fell twice and Charlie tried his best to help me up, which was emotionally as well as physically awkward. I got the west bedroom that faced out over the front yard. The room was familiar; it had belonged to me since I was born. It had belonged to me then, and it belonged to me now. The wooden floor, the light blue walls, the peaked ceiling, the yellowed lace curtains around the window, the windows framing the barren yard out front, the brown of the barren yard accenting the yellowed lace curtains, the Kewpie dolls stacked in the corner, the mysterious "beet juice" stain on the carpet in the far corner—these were all a part of my childhood. The only changes Charlie had ever made were switching the crib for a desk as I was now too big to do my homework in the crib. The desk now held a second-hand computer, with a 28k modem and wicked dial-up speed. This was a stipulation from my mother, so that we could stay in touch easily. The rocking chair from my baby days was still in the corner. It too was stained with "beet juice."
There was only one small bathroom at the top of the stairs, which I would have to share with that messy pig Charlie. I was trying not to dwell too much on the fact that he was a messy pig, and a dirty one at that, but it was hard.
One of the best things about Charlie is he doesn't hover. He left me alone to unpack and get settled, a feat that would have been altogether impossible for my mother. It was nice to be alone, not to have to smile and look pleased; a relief to stare dejectedly out the window at the sheeting rain and let just a few tears escape. I wasn't in the mood to go on a real crying jag. I would save that for bedtime, when I would have ample time to think about the coming morning.
Forks High School had a frightening student body of only three hundred and fifty-seven—now fifty-eight—students; there were more than seven hundred people in my junior class alone back home. All of the kids here had grown up together; even their grandparents had been toddlers together.

10

Chapter 1

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