Chapter Six: In which Bella actually talks to people.

Bella now spends all her time watching Jacob work on the bikes, well aware that attempting to contribute will probably hand her in the hospital, or worse. Bella lets Jacob drone on and on about whatever he wants, blissfully aware that his crush on her will let her get away with anything as long as she throws in the occasional giggle here and there. Okay, she never actually says that's what she's doing, but it's implied. Or at least assumed, by me.

Jacob has two best friends: Quil and Embry. They're excited to see the bikes, since they'll take some attention away from their strange names. Bella doesn't get the fascination with the bikes, because she's a girl, and girls don't like mechanical things, tee hee!

Bella and Jacob are hanging out a lot now, and Bella is actually having fun. It's no surprise that Jacob might get the wrong idea, and even less of a surprise that his friends do. Of course, none of this stops the kind, selfless Bella Swan from allowing it to continue even when she's getting a lot of free labor out of the deal.

In the middle of all of these hangout sessions, something shocking happens to Bella. She goes to bed and doesn't have a horrible nightmare! It's almost like having a life will help you get over your short-term relationship that you should have gotten over in less than four months or so in the first place.

Amazingly, Bella does seem to realize that spending time with Jacob is good for her, the opposite of what she never figured out when it came to Edward. They go to the dump to scavenge parts for the bikes, then an auto parts store for the rest. Jacob and Bella have an argument about who is really older when you consider all their various skills and attributes. Bella keeps arguing that she should be older, which is strange considering it was just a few months ago when 18 was over-the-hill for her. They hang out for so long that they lose track of time; before they know it, Charlie's over at the Black residence for dinner.

This is a perfect chance to meet some ancillary characters! There's the Clearwater family, including daughter Leah, whom Bella calls "beautiful in an exotic way" -- I guess that's her way of saying "good looking, considering she's not white" -- and son Seth, a 14-year-old who idolizes Jacob. See you kids again real soon!

When the Swans head home, Bella realizes she's been a horrible daughter and actually writes her mother an email with a little feeling behind it for a change before going to bed. Sadly, the nightmare returns, now with the addition of Sam Uley, the man who found her in the woods after Edward left her. Somehow, the addition of a creepy man who doesn't speak or offer any help just made the dream worse.

Bella continues her rehab tour at school the next day, trying to have a conversation with her old friends during lunch. Bella eventually jumps into the conversation, but not after a little more discussion of SUPERBEAR, the giant bear everyone is seeing just outside of town. Amazingly, nobody contemplates selling that as a script for a SyFy Original Movie -- it can't be any worse than Raptor Island, or Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. Angela and Ben (two more characters you don't care about) are the latest to spot the bear, and when others express disbelief, Bella chimes in to mention the hikers who saw it too.

And the entire table turns in shock. For the first time in months, Bella Swan has spoken. You know, if it's that noticeable when you talk, something's very wrong. Why Bella's "friends" kept her around for all this time when she didn't even have the courtesy to pretend to care about their lives -- really, even when she was dating Edward, they never got a mention -- I'll never know. But as soon as she says one sentence, the whole table is back to loving her again.

Bella remarks that it's been just over a year since she first came to Forks, and it's like she's ready to start over from scratch again. Maybe this time she won't be such a jerk to everyone who isn't a sparkling vampire of godliness and lower herself to hanging around with mere humans from time to time. But don't worry, vampire romance fans...I'm sure that nonsense will stop as soon as Edward inevitably comes back into her life a couple hundred pages from now.