Chapter Five: Bella's a screamer. I mean, she has nightmares.

I may not have mentioned it, but Bella's been working in the Newtons' sporting goods store. Today, business is slow, except for a couple campers talking about the HUGEST BEAR EVER they saw just outside of town. Since Bella spends so much time in the woods, I'm sure that won't come up later! Especially with the 30 or so mentions the bear gets in the next few chapters!

Since there's so little work to be done Bella goes home, where she has nightmares. The same exact nightmare, every single night since Edward dumped her. She wanders through the woods, searching, only to finally realize there's nothing there. And every night, she wakes up screaming...to the point where Charlie doesn't even give a damn anymore.

But on the way home, her daydreaming causes her to wander in her truck, and she ends up in front of a house that has two old motorcycles for sale. Actually, they're not so much "for sale" as they are free for anyone stupid enough to take them. Sounds right up Bella's alley! She wants to be reckless, and motorcycles are about the best way to do that in Forks. But they're not close to being in riding conditions. If only she knew someone who could fix cars and bikes...

Enter Jacob Black! You remember him from the first book: he's the teenage son of Charlie's friend Billy, and a member of the nearby Quileute tribe that lives in La Push. Bella heads down there, and is not surprised that a much more mature looking Jacob is happy to see her. What is surprising is that she's happy to see him! Apparently, losing your boyfriend of several months isn't actually the end of the world, and other people can still make you happy on occasion. After a four month waiting period, anyway.

Jacob is now 6'5" and lean but strong; he can probably expect Gonzaga to recruit him to play small forward one of these days, if they have basketball on the reservation. When he sees the motorcycles, he's impressed -- they'll need a lot of work, but it'll be a fun project. And it means he gets to see Bella more, which means that Bella can totally not take advantage of his interest in her in any way, even though she only thinks of him as a friend and it's blindingly obvious that he wants her.

The pair strikes a deal: Jacob supplies the labor, and Bella will pay for the parts out of her college fund, since her future is no longer sparkly anyway. In addition, Jacob gets to keep the bike of his choice and stare longingly at Bella as much as he wants. Everyone wins!

Bella is ecstatic that she has something to do with her life again -- she gets to enjoy spending time with Jacob and because she'll soon have a chance to kill herself on a motorcycle. As Bella remarks, only a teenage boy would think it was okay to help a teenage girl hide a couple motorcycles from their parents. This makes him a gift from the gods.

Not an actual god, though. Not everyone can be a godlike sparklepire.