and there shall be an age of darkness

[impetuous_force]

Bella is careful.

Bella is careful to go to the magic shop during lunch - not at night, not when her parents might notice her leaving home, not when her teachers might notice her skipping classes. She is careful to wear her crucifix, carry her holy water gun, keep her demon whistle ready to hand. She is careful to wrap her occult purchases in disguising packaging: chip bags, gym clothes, grocery totes. She is careful to restrict herself to spells that are necessary - whether "necessary" means for the result or for managing her mercifully limited dependence on the damn things is always carefully recorded in opaque code in her notebook, and if the ratio gets too low, she goes cold turkey outside dire emergencies for at least three days. This is uncomfortable, and it kills her class performance and her temper for those days, but she has to be careful. Her parents don't want her doing magic. They're afraid she'll get addicted. (Done.) They're afraid she'll get snapped up by the USADI, drafted into casting more than she can handle or things that shouldn't be cast at all. (Not done; and another reason to be careful.) They're afraid she'll get a spell wrong and hurt herself. (Not done; yet another reason to be... careful.)

She is confident that witchery has saved her life at least twice, possibly as many as four times; she's sure it's saved others more than that. A month ago she located the hiding place of the Gem of Amara, determined it ludicrously easy to find, and conjured it to her for safekeeping in Forks under considerably more sophisticated wards placed gradually over the course of weeks. (Not in the house; any vampire with a non-vampire demon friend could bypass that protection and she doesn't want to put her parents in harm's way. But in a house, because the protection is non-negligible; USADI experimental reports say that squatters count as living human residents, and she can get into the basement section of a consistently occupied old Victorian close to the city walls without bothering - or alerting - those who make it their hangout.) With this gem more securely stowed, it will at least take longer for some vampire or other to come across it, render themselves invincible, and slaughter an entire metropolitan area before USADI calls in something sufficiently heavy-duty to get around the damn thing.

She's looking into how to destroy it, but while Forks has the advantage of safety, it also has the disadvantage of a relatively cruddy magic shop. The Witchnook is capable of special-ordering things, albeit with a lag time of weeks or months, but Bella's not sure how far to trust the proprietor. She supposes her parents don't know she's a witch yet, so it can't be "not at all", but, well. She'll come up with some other books to order in the same batch, as cover.

Bella is careful when she goes out at night. She wears her cross, she carries her holy water gun and her demon whistle. She sets her alarm clock at maximum volume for fifteen minutes after she expects to be back, with a note taped to it for her parents, in case she runs into trouble. And usually she doesn't go out at night at all.

Tonight she needs a spell ingredient that cannot be out of doors during the daylight without losing its potency, though, so if she wants to get it home at all, she is going to have to spend ten minutes walking to the Witchnook, pay for her twilight powder, and spend ten minutes walking back.

Forks has walls.

She'll be okay.

She'll be careful.

Comments

[eversomuchfun]

"Yes, and? It might be interesting," he says. "Best reason in the world to do anything, as far as I'm concerned."

[impetuous_force]

"All right then. Let me know when you settle into a schedule, if you still find the notion interesting," shrugs Bella.

[eversomuchfun]

"Will do."

[impetuous_force]

Stretch, stretch. "Did you find a place to live?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Not yet. I have hope, though, now that I'm everyone's favourite tragic orphan."

[impetuous_force]

"You're everyone's favorite antisocial tragic orphan who complains about the cafeteria food. If anyone starts making noise about sending you home with me because we're managing to have a civil conversation right now you'd better find a way to put them off before I blurt out to my parents that they mustn't invite you into our house."

[eversomuchfun]

"It's easier to keep up the cover if I'm not trying to mimic a fundamentally alien personality, and I assure you, if I had just lost my parents in a vampire attack two weeks ago I would be reasonably likely to punch the second person who asked me to tell them all about it. There have been five."

[impetuous_force]

"Oh, I'm not saying it's a preposterous thing for you to be doing, I'm just not confident that it'll lead to a welcoming berth somewhere."

[eversomuchfun]

He shrugs. "We'll see."

[impetuous_force]

After school, Bella fetches the flash drive. It checks out, although by the time she's run a virus scan and looked at all the files her mother is home from work and wants to chat.

The next day, Bella wakes up with Angela's cold. It's quite sufficient to keep her in bed all morning - her parents go off to work - she feels better around midday, and starts making relatively unproductive phone calls to various companies that could do with the laser plans.

[alicornucopia]

Angela, meanwhile, is feeling much better and is back in school today!

She misses Bella in bio, but sits next to the new boy. "Hello," she says. "I'm Angela. I was sick yesterday, I must have missed you when you first got here."

[eversomuchfun]

"Hello," says the new boy. "I'm John, in case you are the one person in town who hasn't heard. I still don't have anything to take notes in, so you'll have to apply to Bella for those, but I have a pretty good memory so I think we can scrape by."

[alicornucopia]

"Someone mentioned your name but I wasn't sure if I'd heard it right. Bella takes wonderful notes," says Angela.

[eversomuchfun]

"She does. I was very impressed."

[alicornucopia]

"She practices a lot," laughs Angela, and she sets about meticulous lab setup. It's a very lab-heavy biology course. Angela is unusual in wearing not only the ubiquitous cross necklace, but also earrings and a bracelet; she could loan out half her vampire-repelling jewelry and be no less protected.

[eversomuchfun]

Well, every little bit helps.

Sherlock assists with the lab setup. He's very efficient about it.

[alicornucopia]

Lab ensues. Angela is quiet, not pensive or unfriendly, just - a quiet person.

[eversomuchfun]

He appreciates quiet! They have a quiet but productive lab.

After Bio, they are heading from the same origin to the same destination, so it's only reasonable that they end up walking together. Also, out of everyone present she is definitely the least annoying.

[alicornucopia]

Angela brings her lunch, and without Bella around she picks an empty table to sit at and eat her leftover rice salad and fruit cup.

[eversomuchfun]

"Lucky you," he says, gesturing to her lunch with his freshly acquired bottle of orange juice. "I'd've brought one myself, but I ran into the slight logistical issue of not having a kitchen to cook it in."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh no, that's terrible. No permanent residence yet?" Angela, who will now be narrated as Angie, asks sympathetically.

[eversomuchfun]

"Not yet, no."

[alicornucopia]

"Do you want help?" asks Angie.

[eversomuchfun]

"It would be much appreciated."

[alicornucopia]

"My family actually lives right within walking distance of the school, next door to the church around the corner," says Angie, "and we have a spare room - I'll need to ask, but it might work out." She mentions the church with the gentleness of someone who has been made aware that her new classmate might have a particular fear of vampires but doesn't want to poke at it directly.