78Disclaimer: Don't ownTwilight
Here's the first revision. I think this will make the story very very much better.
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"You what!?" exclaimed Aubrey, pale with shock. Jack Neils, her father, rubbed the back of his neck guiltily.
"Crawford fired me," he repeated with a shrug, his young, stubbled face stretched in a guilty smile. Aubrey walked to a chair by the table, sitting and putting her head in her arms on the flat surface.
"What are we going to do?" she moaned. Jack walked around behind her. His hand reached up and brushed her auburn hair back over her shoulders.
"Luckily, I found an opening right away. You remember Dr. Yellik?" he asked.
"The one that transferred?" asked Aubrey, not looking up.
"Yeah...he uh...transferred again. There's a free space at his old hospital," said Jack. Aubrey sat up.
"...Where?" she asked simply, though her eyes clearly showed that she was expecting the very Underworld to be the destination.
"...How much do you like Canada?" asked Jack. Aubrey groaned and buried her face in the crook of her arm.
"We're moving to Canada!?" she exclaimed.
"No, no. We're moving to Washington," said Jack as if that would fix the antagonism. It didn't.
"Is that supposed to be better!?" asked Aubrey, lifting her face to look imploringly into her father's emerald eyes. Jack rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Aubrey..." Aubrey stood up, her green eyes glaring into her father's matching ones. Jack seemed to shrink under the intense gaze, though his daughter was at least half a foot shorter than him.
"Where in Washington?" she asked dangerously.
"Er...Forks," Jack admitted. Aubrey sighed.
"Never heard of it," she said, "and if I haven't heard of it, it's smaller than Little Rock. I'm not going."
She turned and stomped up the stairs towards her room. Jack walked after her, his ears turning red, as they always did under pressure. His adult tendencies only kicked in when he was angry; the rest of the time he was just a big teenager: the consequences of eloping at eighteen.
"You're going alright!" he shouted up the stairs after the retreating form of his daughter. "I've already sold the house to the McKiens! Better start packing! We leave in two days!"
Sure enough, just as Jack had ordered, two days later Aubrey found herself sitting shotgun in Jack's old 1987 Toyota 4Runner, staring glumly out of the window at the scenery rushing by. The U-Haul truck was a day ahead of them and she was utterly miserable. The past few days had been filled with endless drives, dozens of pit stops, and shady motels on the side of the highway. They had gotten lost at least twice because Jack had insisted on reading the map and driving at the same time. Those times nearly resulted in crashes, and that was when he had decided to let Aubrey read the map. Finally signs had kicked in with directions and the map had been stowed next to the small sea of burger wrappers that littered the floor of the truck.
Aubrey opened her eyes tiredly and peeled her face off of the car window. How she had managed to fall asleep in such an uncomfortable car was a mystery to her. She wiped away a faint trail of drool at the corner of her mouth and looked out of the window at the passing trees. Where were they now? Kansas? Wyoming? Idaho?
"Where are we now?" she asked dully. Jack glanced at her briefly.
"Well well, nice of you to join me, Sleeping Beauty," he said. Aubrey gave him a look. He smirked and replied, "We're nearly there." A few drops of rain hit the windshield and Aubrey sighed.
"Rain. Bad sign," she commented pessimistically.
"Hardly. Did I forget to mention that Forks is the rain capital of the world?" asked Jack, raising his eyes at her at this piece of information. Aubrey braced her forehead against the glass once more.
"More joy," she said sarcastically. Jack shook his head and turned back to the road.
As they drove, the pines and spruces around them thickened and turned into a fully foliaged forest that blocked the distant scenery from view. All around them was green, and the canopies of the trees even blocked out the sky so that the faint light looked green through the rain. Aubrey and Jack remained silent, observing this phenomenon of nature. The truck turned a corner and a dingy old sign grew into view, surrounded by a layer of fog. Aubrey squinted to read it.
'Welcome to the town of Forks' it read in large, friendly, red block letters. Aubrey sighed and sank further into her seat, removing her forehead from the window.
They drove through the small, wet town for what seemed to be a mere five minutes the truck turned off the highway into the gravel driveway of a small, faded, wooden house with a blue roof. Jack had given the movers a plan of the house's layout when they left the previous house in Arkansas. They had moved the furniture into the proper rooms according to the diagram already.
Jack and Aubrey unloaded their bags out of the Toyota and dragged them inside. The house wasn't big. The front door opened into a main room where their old plaid brown couch sat awkwardly in the center on the musty offwhite rugged floor. The movers obviously hadn't paid attention to detail. A small nightstand and a TV set sat in the room as well. With Aubrey's help, Jack managed to get everything into their proper places.
As he moved to the kitchen to repeat the process, Aubrey began to make a mental map of the house as she wandered through the rooms. The main room opened at the back into the kitchen, where the refridgerator was currently lying on its side. A door in the back of the kitchen area opened into into a back hallway where the bedrooms were. Aubrey's room was closest to this door and Jack's was all the way down at the other end. A single bathroom was between the two.
Aubrey reclaimed her baggage from the living room, walked to her own room, and began to unpack. She managed to move her bed and dresser against the walls, though a large scratch was created in teh process. She quickly covered this with a movie poster.
After a while, Jack called her out to go with him to Thriftway, the local superstore, to get maps of the town. Back through the rain into the somewhat dry interior of the Toyota they ran. Jack turned the key and drove out onto the road.
As they drove along the shining wet street, they passed a grassy lot dotted with a series of small brick buildings. Concrete walks connected the buildings, and a deserted parking lot emptied out onto their road behind a sign that read 'Forks High School'. Once again it was written in big, red block letters, as if the signs were to make people seem more at home. It didn't do anything for Aubrey.
"There's your high school," said Jack unnecessarily. Aubrey didn't speak. "You'll have to walk, but we're close enough. It shouldn't be too much of a hassle."
Aubrey eyed the large ominous puddles on the side of the road. It rained in Arkansas often enough, but nothing like this. This was unrivaled rain. This was a never-ending fall of rain. Something stirred in the back of her mind.
"Dad, I only have sneakers and sandals," she said. "Don't people here need like...rainboots?" Jack hesitated thoughtfully.
"Maybe so," he said. "Look, we'll get you some boots in a few days. I don't have my cash on me today and I'll be working from four to seven every day."
"Fine..." mumbled Aubrey with a sigh.
One dash through the rain and a quick look around told Aubrey and Jack that the Thriftway wouldn't be too helpful. It was well stocked with school-supply-type stuff and different tourist help brochures though. They walked over to these, taking up several maps. Jack looked up at the young, blonde receptionist. He grinned nervously.
"Er...do we have to pay for these, or are they free?" he asked, holding up the maps.
"Are you new to Forks?" asked the woman with a bleached smile. Aubrey narrowed her eyes, looking between the two. Jack's ears had turned red.
"Er...yes, we just moved from...from..."
"Little Rock, Arkansas," Aubrey finished for him, a light, yet severe, edge to her voice.
"Yeah..." said Jack distractedly, his smile melting into a goofy grin.
"They're on the house," said the receptionist, smiling again.
"Thanks very much, we'll be leaving now," said Aubrey with a sardonic little smile of her own as she pulled her father out of the store while he continued to grin like an idiot.
Father and daughter climbed into the car in silence and pulled out onto the street once again. Aubrey glared furiously out of the window at the greenery whipping by. Jack's smile had long since left his face and he glanced at her apologetically.
"Aubrey..." he said. No answer. "Look, I'm sorry. I can't help my attractions."
"You should try," said Aubrey in a low voice. "That's the third time this month."
"You know the world doesn't revolve around you," said Jack matter-of-factly. "I have needs too." Aubrey didn't answer, but her expression softened slightly in resignation. She knew he was right. He had remained unmarried for nearly ten years, and for that she was grateful, but he couldn't stay abstinent forever. It wasn't in his nature.
When they reached the house, they seated themselves at the kitchen counter and poured over the maps, trying to get a mental layout of the town. It grew late, and, after a small supper of leftover travel food, Jack and Aubrey bid each other goodnight and went off to their rooms.
Aubrey tossed and turned; unable to sleep due to the queasiness her stomach was experiencing at the thought of school the next morning. The rain drumming hard against her window didn't help much either. She was excited, but at the same time scared and anxious. The thoughts running circles through her head were keeping her alert and worrying. Awake.
It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that she managed to drift into a series of confused dreams.
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