Chapter 3 - Promises

Chapter 3 - Promises
I woke up early the next morning, hoping to catch Mom without Phil around. No such luck; he had ruined my planned night out with my friends, and now he seemed to be set on trying to ruin my entire life. I walked into the kitchen. "Good morning, Isabella, did you sleep well?" What was up with him? Trying to be all nice. This was a first; he had never stayed overnight before. It was some sort of Christian thing I guess. I guess he now got to have his way with my mother, since she stupidly said yes to his marriage proposal. "Phil," I said, nodding to him as I got a bowl out of the cupboard to have some cereal. "Where is my mom?" I said, turning to him. "She went to the next door neighbour's to give them a key to the house," Phil said sharply. "What? Why?" I really didn't like him. "We are moving today, and we need to leave the key with them so that they can let the movers in to box your things up." He said like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Why the hurry? Can't I stay and put my own stuff in a box?" I asked. Who moved that quickly? "No, I am sorry, Isabella, but Renee and I decided it was best to move as soon as possible. We didn't want to, but we have no choice now," he said, looking back at his paper with a frown on his face.

What did he mean he had no choice? I was outraged. "But my Dad is coming at the end of the month!" I knew I was starting to whine, but I couldn't help it. This was all so sudden. I also knew it would do no good.

"Renee has already called him," he said taking a sip of his tea.

This surprised me; Mom hated talking to Charlie. "Really? What did he say?" "Charlie is going to give you time to settle in, and then come and visit you on the Ranch as planned," he said, putting his tea down, starting to look annoyed with me. This wasn't unusual. "Oh, okay then." Well at least I had a way out if I really hated it; Charlie would take me home with him. "Go and get a few clothes together," he said as I was finishing up my cereal, "the movers will bring the rest in a few days." "Okay," I said, a little shocked, and not really knowing what to think, as my mom came bounding through the back door with a smile on her face. "Good morning, Bella! Beautiful day, isn't it?" she said going over to Phil and squeezing his hand.

"Hmm," was all I could manage as I left the room with tears in my eyes. There was obviously no way I was going to stop this. I wasn’t even going to be able to say goodbye to my friends. I would just disappear off the face of the earth.

Getting into the black four wheel drive that Phil owned always made me uncomfortable, as it had blacked out windows. I threw my small bag of clothes onto the seat beside me. I couldn't believe I wouldn't see this house again. I stared up at the brown wooden boards of the house that badly needed painting and felt sorrow that we were leaving. I wanted my mom to be happy, I truly did; I just felt something was off. This felt too soon, everything was changing too quickly. I bit my tongue and sighed as we pulled away from the curb, and I watched my neighborhood fly by through the darkly tinted window. After God knows how long, I was bored out of my mind. My head was resting against the car window as Mom and Phil were listening to some news report and discussing how the youth of today had gone wild. I wanted to roll my eyes listening to Phil go on, and my mother was agreeing with him, so I just blocked it out and closed my eyes. I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew we were pulling up to the so called 'Ranch.' I was amazed at how much it looked like a little town. It had its own stores and animals that you could see in the fields in the distance. Truthfully, it looked like we had stepped back in time. I couldn't see any women, just men working. They were all wearing similar clothing, long sleeved shirts and pants, all in white linen like it was a weird type of uniform. "Welcome to Volturi, your new home," Phil said to me, smiling as he opened the car door and slid out. I said nothing in return. I just opened the car door and slid to the ground. I could hear my mom talking about how beautiful it all was, and that she couldn't wait to see the house. I followed her and watched as Phil gave my mom a serious look and they both nodded. Oh, this should be good. "Honey, Phil and I discussed something before we left," my mom looked towards me, reaching out for my hand, but Phil had her other one and didn't let her go. They immediately had my complete attention. Mom continued, "There is a boarding school here; you won't be living with us but at the school." "So... what? I am in the way so you want to get rid of me? How convenient! If that was the case, Mom, why didn't you just send me to live with Charlie? Instead you drag me here, out into the middle of nowhere!" I was beyond angry. Never mind starting a new school in a new area where I knew no one; I now didn't even have my own mother? "No, no, no, honey," Renee pulled away from Phil causing him to frown. "We don't want to get rid of you; it is just the way the school is here. You can probably come home on the weekends?" She didn't sound very sure but looked over at Phil to confirm it. "Look, Isabella, the school has a strict orientation program, Once you have completed that you will be allowed to call your mother, and we will work it out from there, okay?" He smiled at my mom trying to reassure her. I couldn't believe she was listening to him! I was so mad. I turned on my heel. "Fine, let's get this over with." I headed back over to the car to get my bag. "Bella, they are expecting you at the front office for orientation; I will bring your bag up later," Phil said, smiling at me, knowing he had won this round. "See the large building at the top of the hill?" I nodded my head at him, looking towards the big white building that was pretty fancy looking for a school. "Just knock on the door; they are expecting you." Phil turned my mom away from me, "Come on, Renee, let me show you the house." She smiled at Phil and looked over her shoulder and said, "I'll see you soon, okay honey?" Then she blew me a kiss. Great, I didn't even get to hug her goodbye. I was going to go live with Charlie, I already knew it. Phil didn't want me around, that much was clear. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down as I walked slowly towards the school. No one took any notice of me as I walked past them. They carried on with whatever they were doing, not surprised by an outsider being in their surroundings. I was a bundle of nerves as I reached the door of the school. I didn't know what to expect as I had been told nothing. It was so quiet you could hear the animals in the distance and the wind rustling the leaves on the trees. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. A man opened the door almost immediately. "Hello there, I am Dr. Carlisle Cullen," he smiled. "We have been expecting you." A doctor? "I thought this was a school?" I asked, completely confused as to why a doctor would be greeting me. "I just need to give you a physical examination before you can enter into our program. We need to make sure you are healthy and all of your immunizations are up-to-date. We don't want anybody getting sick, now do we?" he asked nicely. "No I guess we don't," I smiled back at him timidly and followed him into his office. He closed the door behind him. "Okay up onto the table for me please," he said, nodding towards the examination bed, just like the one I had been on many a time in our own GP's office back in Phoenix. I was nervous but Dr. Cullen had a soothing manner. He was quiet and calm, which made me feel comfortable in his presence. "I am going to take your blood pressure to start with," he said, placing the cuff around the top of my arm and securing it in place with the Velcro.

The doctor started squeezing the hand pump, and it tightened to be almost unbearable around my arm before deflating. Taking the cuff off my arm, he murmured, “Good, good.”

He placed a digital thermometer in my ear, I heard it beep. "Good good." he murmured to himself writing down the result before coming back to the table.

“Have you ever had a pelvic examination done before?” he brought up the stirrups at the end of the examination table.

What? My eyes went wide as saucers and I shook my head.

“It is nothing to worry about, I promise; it's routine for a girl your age to be checked out yearly. If you haven’t had one, it is important to start now. Are you okay with this?”

Well, if it's normal to have it be done by now, I guess so; my mom was hopeless with these things. I nodded my head warily at him.

“I am going to need you to take off the clothes below your waist, then hop back up on the bed and place your feet in the stirrups.” He sounded very clinical as he turned his back to let me get undressed. I undid the top button of my jeans, kicking off my shoes as I went, just wanting to get this over with.

Pulling my panties down with my jeans I folded them over my shoes quickly, getting up onto the table and placing my feet in the stirrups. Oh, God I didn’t like doing this. I felt almost unclean; it just felt wrong. Where was my mom? How could she let me go through this alone?

“Good girl. This will feel a tad uncomfortable, but it will be over in a second, okay?” I think he smiled at me, but I was not looking at anything but the wall. At least it seemed he was professional, but he looked like he was concentrating as he slipped something cold and wet into me. With the click of the speculum, I was opened up. It felt so uncomfortable, almost unbearable. The doctor obviously sensed my discomfort, as he said, “Just relax, it's nearly over; you are doing so well.” I scrunched my eyes closed. “There you go, all done.” The pressure was gone, and I breathed a sigh of relief. He handed me a paper towel. I guessed that it was to wipe myself down.

“You may put your clothes back on now.” He smiled and moved over to the desk, putting a specimen swab into a sealed tube.

He spoke to me as I threw the paper towel into the bin and pulled up my panties. “When did you finish your last menstrual cycle?”

My face turned bright red, “Um... I finished last week?” I spoke to him like it was a question.

“Do you remember what day you finished?” He turned and smiled at me.

“Thursday,” I said with a little more confidence.

“Good, good. Sorry. I need to know for the test,” he said, obviously trying to reassure me once again.

I smiled in relief as I had no idea why he was asking so many questions.

"How long does your cycle normally last?" he asked.

“Four or five days.”

“Are you allergic to anything?” he said, obviously still writing everything down.

“Nope, nothing at all,” I said thinking at least I could understand why he was asking that question.

“Great,” he said writing more things and ticking off boxes.

“Your mom sent your files over from your GP back in Phoenix,” he said. I was completely surprised about this. “Why are you looking at me in disbelief?” he laughed.

“No, it is just that I didn’t even know I was coming here, and you have my medical records already? My mother isn’t the most organized person in the world,” I said, suddenly feeling like I was being lied to. I knew my mom would never be that organized. I would be surprised if she even had the number for Dr. Gerundy with her.

“Oh, I had them sent over to me this morning by fax,” he smiled.

I stifled a giggle, “Yep, that sounds more like my mom.”

He gave me a small smile, and took a deep breath, “Bella, your TB shot is not up to date. Would you mind if we did that now, so that you will be all done?”

“Yeah, sure, that's fine,” I said, already feeling queasy from the thought of getting stuck with a needle.

“Excellent,” he smiled, “roll up your sleeve for me again, would you?”

I complied and looked away from the needle. I couldn’t stand the sight of blood; all I needed now was for me to faint. I felt the jab and then the coolness as the liquid flowed into my body. I started to feel tingly all over.

“Are you okay?” The doctor quickly moved me over to the examination table and laid me down. My vision was blurring and I suddenly felt so tired that I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

I saw the doctor open the door and say, “She is healthy and ready for you.”

“Is she pure?” I heard a deep voice ask.

“Yes, my father,” the doctor answered before I fell into a deep sleep.