*sigh* This story is one of the reasons I haven't updated my other one... lol

This is Dedicated to my good friend, Dance, who's window flirting antics inspired this story

Disclaimer: I do not own these wonderful characters. All I own is this plot, my laptop, Debby, and some orange wannabe chucks.

without further ado: please read and review!

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Forks, Washington: how I loathe thee.

My mother and I used to live together with my father in this rainy little town, but she walked out on him, taking me with her when I was just a baby.

From that time on, I grew up in the sunniest of places, starting out in California and ending up in Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix was so beautiful, and it's the exact opposite of forest-filled Forks. Between the massive amounts of clouds and all the trees, I doubted if I would ever get to see the sun here.

Okay, so technically I don't have the right to complain. After all, I didn't move to this wet little corner of this far off state for anyone's reasons but my own. I wasn't forced into this decision. In fact, Renee, my mother, had done her best to talk me out of it. But, of course, my mind was made up, and there was no changing it. I was going to move in with my father Charlie, and let Renee travel with her new husband Phil. The decision hurt, but it was made already regardless.

Not having grown up with the wealthiest income, I didn't have many belongings to take with me. Just my carry-on and two additional pieces of luggage, one of which was mainly my book collection. I let Charlie carry that one to his cruiser when he picked me up from the airport.

Charlie was the police chief of Forks, and he was very proud of that position, even if he never said anything about it. He was generally a quiet man, and he wasn't very good at expressing emotions, therefore he kept mostly to himself. I didn't mind this about him in the slightest; I was the same way. I knew that this living situation would work out well… you know, except for the whole hating the town with a passion, thing.

We made awkward conversation in the car, both of us not really knowing what to say to each other. We even stooped to discussing the weather, but that didn't last very long, of course, considering how it never changes in Forks.

An hour and a half later, we were pulling up to the house where I was born. It's a beautiful (to me, at least) old house. It has two stories and it's kind of dingy… the white paint outside was rather grey looking and the overgrown tree that grew on the right side of the house was taking over and completely covered one of my bedroom windows. Even from the car I could hear the branches banging against the glass. I knew I would have trouble sleeping if it was going to make that racket every time it was windy. My other window, the one facing the front of the house, had a wonderful bay window that I would love sitting in to read whenever I visited Charlie for my summer vacations here as a child. That window was my favorite part of the entire house. Charlie, of course, had one as well in his room on the left side of the upstairs, but his window didn't seem as lovely as mine, despite the matching yellow curtains that had hung there for as long as he had lived in this house. My window was just special, and no other window could compare.

I think that the window was what made the otherwise ugly house look so beautiful in my eyes.

And I knew that that window would serve as my escape whenever life in Forks would become too much to handle. That window would be my savior.

It took me a while to realize that Charlie hadn't gotten out of the car yet. I looked over at him to see him staring out down the road with a frown on his face. He glanced at his watch and looked back down the street.

"Dad?" I wasn't allowed to call him Charlie to his face. "What are you waiting for?"

"Um…" he began.

But then he was cut off by the roar of a loud truck pulling into the drive beside the cruiser. I couldn't see who was driving it through the dense rain, but I followed Charlie's lead when he hurried out of the car to greet whoever it was that arrived in it.

I was surprised to see that it was a young kid. Well, maybe "young" was a bad description of him. He looked to be only a year or two younger than me, and he had long silky black hair pulled back into a pony tail and russet skin. He was obviously from La Push, the Native American reservation that was about 15 minutes away from Forks. He definitely wasn't who I would expect to show up, if I had been expecting anyone. I figured it would have been one of Charlie's fishing buddies or something.

"Jacob!" Charlie greeted him enthusiastically, before turning playfully disapproving. "I'll pretend that I didn't see you behind the wheel since I'm off duty, young man…" he warned.

"We get permits early on the Rez. Besides, Harry had something come up suddenly, and he knew that you wanted it today."

I just stood there in confusion as rain pattered down on us all. I was getting cold, so I walked up and stood under the porch so as not to get even more wet.

My movement reminded the two of my presence.

"Oh, Bella," Charlie began, suddenly becoming nervous as he and this Jacob fellow followed my lead under the cover from the rain. "I, um, hope you don't mind, but I knew that you were going to be looking for a car when you got here, so I, um, kind of got you one. You know, as a welcome present…"

He didn't look at me, choosing instead to stare at his feet. I looked over at the truck with fresh eyes, inspecting it once again. It was really old looking, with the faded red paint peeling off in places, and the engine was really loud. But oddly enough, I loved it. It was sturdy. I knew that it could withstand all that my bad luck had to throw at it.

"Wow, Dad, thanks!" I said. That meant that the little bit of money that I had managed to save up could go to a college fund instead. Usually I don't like receiving gifts from anybody, but I knew that needed the truck, if I didn't want to have the embarrassment of Charlie dropping me off to school every morning in his police cruiser.

"So you like it?" he asked, chancing a glance up at me.

"Yeah, I love it!" I beamed at him.

He took a sigh of relief. "That's good. Billy—you remember Billy Black?" he interrupted himself. I nodded, even though I had absolutely no idea who he was talking about. "Well, Billy's in a wheelchair now and doesn't have much need for it, so he was selling his truck, and I thought that it would be a good car. You know, for you." He was obviously thinking of my inability to keep out of danger, too.

"That, and my Dad wouldn't let me start building my own car until we sold this one," Jacob said, speaking to me for the first time. I looked over to him and he was smiling, offering his hand in introduction. "Jacob Black. You must be Bella."

I nodded and took his hand. He had such a bright smile that the clouds seemed to dissipate temporarily.

"Hey, Jake, you wanna come in for a while before I drop you back off?" Charlie asked him. He was all too happy to have this kid over and seemed to like him a lot. Although I knew that Charlie loved me, I also knew that he wished he had a son, too, that he could take out fishing with him every weekend. I wasn't the fishing type. I figured that Jacob, being his friend's kid, was like a son-replacement for him.

"I don't know," he said, looking over at me. "Do you mind? I know you just got here and probably want to unpack and stuff…" It was very sweet of him to think of me.

"I don't mind. I can unpack any time. But to do that, I'll need my stuff," I added, looking from Charlie over to the cruiser, which still held my luggage in the back of it.

"Oh right!" he said, digging his keys back out of his pocket as he and Jacob walked back out through the rain to grab my suitcases. Jacob tried to be a gentleman and wouldn't let me carry anything, but he complained to me about the weight when he picked up the one that held my books. He had a little muscle to him, more so than most 15-year-olds, but not too much. He was stronger than me at least, and carried the heavy suitcase up to my room. I looked fondly out my window, and was surprised to see lights on in a house across the road.

Jacob noticed my preoccupation. "Yeah, that's one of the Cullen's houses now."

"One of them?" I asked. Who buys extra property in Forks of all places... it couldn't be of much value.

"Yeah, they live just outside town, really, but Mrs. Cullen is into restoration and all that, so they're always remodeling the house they normally live in, and when that happens, they stay here."

"Oh," was all I said. I was still looking at the house. The rain had halted (for now) and I could see it clearly. It was a pale cream color, and was in much better shape than it was the last time I had seen it several years ago, when I had visited Charlie here, and nobody had lived there for as long as I could remember. But now that there was someone there, I noticed what I hadn't paid attention to before.

The house wasn't directing face-to-face with ours, like most houses would be. The tree on the left side of our yard blocked Charlie's room from sight, as the house was over to the right, so that only the far left side was actually in front of our house, one bay window facing directly into mine. The light wasn't on in that room.

"I hope you don't mind," Jacob began, trying to break the awkward silence that I had let fall during my thinking, "but Charlie's let me sleep in your room a few times."

"Has he?" I tried to break free of my thoughts.

"Yeah… whenever my dad had to go away with the other tribal elders for things, and I would stay here… that's okay, right?" he asked, responding to the lack of character in my voice and my faraway stare.

"Yeah, that's fine… I wasn't using the bed then anyway." I forced myself to look at Jacob and smile. "But your obviously not sleeping in here anymore," I laughed.

"Ah, I don't think Charlie would mind too much… he and my dad have been planning our wedding for years," he stage whispered in my ear, throwing a smile at my doorway.

I laughed again, as I noticed that Charlie was standing there with my other bag, grinning at us.

"Is that true?" I asked him, trying to look serious, and failing miserably.

"What can I say? He's a good kid and he's already like a son to me." Charlie's smile became more pronounced. It was strange seeing so much emotion in him. I was unused to it.

I looked at him incredulously, until Jacob spoke.

"Don't worry, Bella, I won't be proposing any time soon… we'll become good friends first and then kiss in some game of truth or dare and realize that we have feelings for each other when the tiny kiss turns into making out, and we'll date for a few years until be both graduate and I join you at whatever college you're going to at which point I'll knock you up, and then we'll get married." He kept a straight face, but I could see that his eyes were laughing at me as my shocked face now showed itself to him.

Charlie burst out laughing, which set Jacob off, and after a couple seconds I joined in too.

When the laughter finally died down, Charlie said, "Come on, kids, I'll order a pizza."

We all went downstairs, enjoyed pizza, laughed and had a good time. Eventually, we realized how late it had gotten, and it was time for Jacob to go. Both he and Charlie gave me a hug goodbye before walking out to the cruiser. For some reason, the hug with Jacob was less awkward than the hug with Charlie. I guess it was because Jacob had become such a good friend in so short a time, while with Charlie, I was accustomed to his usual hiding of emotions.

After I had waved them off, I headed upstairs to unpack. After I put my clothes in the proper dresser drawers or the closet, and the books on the bookcase that Charlie had graciously also provided, I took the opportunity to look around my room.

Not much had changed since I was a baby. The old rocking chair still stood in the corner, although the cradle had been replaced by a bed, the changing table was now a desk (with a computer on it—Renee had insisted on this so we could email each other back in forth; it was one of her demands in exchange for letting me come live here), and the same flimsy yellow curtains hung in the window. As my attention turned to my beloved window, I noticed that a light had gone on in the room facing mine.

There was someone walking around in that room. I didn't see any distinguishing features, because the light was shining from behind them, turning the person into a silhouette. After a moment, I realized that the someone was a boy: I still couldn't see the face, but I saw the short hair, broad shoulders, and flat chest.

I tried my best not to look, but I couldn't take my eyes away for long. It seemed that the person was getting ready for bed. He was putting things into a backpack and he took off his shirt. I forced myself to go to the window and try to close the curtains, but they were caught on something and wouldn't shut.

The person across from me noticed the movement and he paused with his shirt halfway off. I also stood motionless, just staring over at the person whose face I couldn't see. After a minute, he seemed to regain his composure and tossed his shirt across the room. He walked closer to the window and waved at me. It took me a moment to get over my shock and wave back. He leaned forward as if he wanted to open his window and shout something to me, and I panicked and hurried stepped to the side, hiding myself against the wall, out of his line of sight.

Great. If I can see that much of him, then he could see the same with me. Probably more, because my desk lamp cancelled out the whole silhouette thing. I'd have to remember to change my clothes out of view from the window.

I looked around the small room. It was practically impossible, unless I did it pressed against the wall like I was now. Seems like the closet or the bathroom will have to suffice.

I must invest in some better curtains, I thought to myself as I gathered clothes to put on after my shower.

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Woohoo! New story! Yay! lol

I think I'm going to keep my other story as my main one, nd just use this this one when I'm going through writer's block or need a break, but I'm not sure yet... Read my other story "Betraying My Absent Heart to Save My Pathetic Life" (shameless self promotion there...) and let me know what y'all think!

Review please!

Much Love,

Grace, the unGraceful