"Goodbye honey. I hope you have great times with your dad."

She closes the window before I have the chance to even say goodbye. Well, are you happy now, mom? I am gone now. All alone in the airport, having to drag around my considerably large lugagge, I have never felt more alone.

From the sunny Phoenix, Arizona, to the rainy Forks.

It has been four years since I last went there, but I can vividly remember the happiest summers I had in my entire life, fishing with my dad and his old pal Bill. Once my mom realized I was having fun and not dying of boredom like she expected, she forbid me to go to Forks.

Now she wants me to go back there. Her new husband Phil travels a lot, and I couldn't because of my education... That, and I no longer have purpose with her: I know she only wanted me living with her to anger Charlie, my dad. But now even he has a wife again, and a little baby girl.

He accepted me readily, reassuring me that me and his new family are going to get together well. I hope so - I fiercely want to. Otherwise I will just be the broken useless doll in the corner, instead of just feeling like it.

Oh well.

I will just find out once it's too late and I'm already there.

But between being miserable at Forks or here at Phoenix, I choose Forks. At least there I won't have to deal with the sun all the damned time. Not to mention I'm not letting much behind: no friends close enough to actually miss me for more than a couple of seconds, no boyfriend either.

I am told to turn off my cellphone once I'm on the airplane, and I do it without much thought. I have no one to call. As the hours go by I see the sky turning from bright blue to grey. Once it's grey I know Forks is near.

Dad goes to pick me up in the airport with his wife and the little girl.

"Hi, you must be Bella." the blonde wife says. Her name is Julia. She shakes my hand and smiles at me; I feel like I just arrived to a bussiness meeting.


"Is she my new sister?" my little not-so-new sister asks. She looks a bit like me: she has the same wavy, dark brown hair that rules the Swan genes. Only that Alex has a healthy pink tone in her skin. I look like a corpse.

"Yes, she is." dad replies and hugs me tightly. "I missed you, sweetie." He then hold me at arm length. "Oh wow, you grew up."

"Weird would be if I haven't." I say.

Dad doesn't mind my comment. "Here, let me have your luggage. It's going to rain and I want to be at home soon."

The ride home is awkwardly silent, from my part. I have nothing to say, and dad and Julia chat about what they have to buy from the supermarket. They are running out of potatoes apparently, and they have to buy new clothes to Alex, who is playing with a doll sitting at my lap.

I never felt more alien.

Discussing about shopping always involved my mom complaining about having to work so much to sustain me. My father seems rather happy to spend his money on potatoes, however.

Also, apparently they moved to a bigger house. There are two cars parked in the front yard. One is the viature my dad works on (he's the Police Chief of the town) and a big, old and red truck. That would leave any car destroyed in wrecks. Weird, I never thought Julia liked such car.

I have to wait Alex get out of my lap to the muddy grass of the yard before jumping out of the car. Little drops fall from the dark sky. Dad is lucky, soon it'll rain. While he's busy carrying my belongings all alone - he refused help - I say to Julia: "Nice truck."

"Oh, it isn't mine." she replies. "It's a gift for you."

I can't even formulate a sentence: "Wha...?"

"We thought you'd like a way to drive around without depending on anyone. Fortunately, Bill had to sell his truck, so he did cheap for us."

"What happened to him?"

"An accident. He can't walk anymore."


"Either way, I conviced Charlie to buy it. We are both too busy to drive you places, and you are almost an adult. I heard you have very responsible."

Our eyes meet, and I can tell the truck is to make me less of a burden to them. Julia is just too nice to tell me this to my face. Whatever. I don't have the money to buy a car anyway, and I don't have to stay with them for long. I just need to finish high school, then I can pick a college far away from both my parents. Maybe I'll be happy then.

"Hey, you better come before the rain.." Charlie shouted from the porch. I follow Julia and Alex inside.

The house looks like a family dream. Cozy and homely, with baby green curtains matching the flower wallpaper from the living room. My things are nearby the staircase.

"Come and have dinner." says dad. "You can unpack later."

I don't know if he can tell all I want is to hide right now. I was used with my mother and our tiny apartment. I don't know what to do with the lovey dovey family and their colorful house, with toys spreaded arond on the floor.

Not a word comes out of my mouth at dinner. I just eat my steak with french fries as quickly as I can and hurry upstairs with my lugagge. In the second floor, I guess correctly that the room with the door open is mine.

The walls are painted in light purple, and everything else's colors follows a pattern of darker purple, pink and green. There's a bed, a wardrobe, a private bathroom. The window gives me view from the front yard. On top of the desk, lies a open laptop and besides it, the keys of the truck hold down a note, clumsily written, from my father.

Hope you liked your new home

Thanks, Dad.

I loved it.


At least I wouldn't have to hang around the house. My school starts today. I wake up and go downstairs to have my breakfast. The whole family is already reunited at the kitchen table. Julia is flipping pancakes, dad is trying to convince Alex to eat a strawberry from the plate in front of her.

"Good morning." he says. "Come on, eat it, honey..." he mutters, this time to Alex.

Julia smiles to me and continue to make pancakes. I'm completely out of place there, so I grab an apple and a bottle of juice from the fridge.

"I'm going to school." I mutter and go upstairs biting my apple. Once I'm on my bedroom I change clothes and assemble any item I might need in my backpack and go to the truck swallowing down the juice. Not the ideal breakfast, I know, but I just want to be somewhere else.

As I drive carefully through the wet road, I realize I'm certainly not going to a better place. School was never a fun place for me to be, and that won't change now.

Forks High School doesn't resemble a school - too many trees and the buildings looked like lake houses.

All the cars in the parking lot are a lot like mine. Nothing too flashy. I even spot a bycicle. Fifteen minutes later, with a map, my time table and slips for my teachers to sign, I am free to walk around until the time of my very first class, forty minutes away.

I walked until the school lands ended and the forest surrounding it starts. No fences protected the school, so I figure there's nothing dangerous in the woods. They are calm and silent. All that I can hear is the sound of me stepping on dead leaves. I hope nothing in the school rules is against roaming around in the woods. Being caught breaking school rules in the first day won't be very nice.

Suddenly, a branch cracks and fall down somewhere at my right. I turn around searching for something between the trees, barely breathing. Another branch breaks, closer to me this time. Whatver is breaking those branches, is out of my sight.

I take one step back, and trip on my own feet, falling on the floor rather shamefully, probably staining my jeans and my coat with moss and mud. A third branch cracks. I stand up and run towards the school as fast as I can, making my way between the lower branches with my hands.

Three minutes later, I'm inside the school's lands, and it's fifteen minutes before the classes start. Which is why a handful of students fill in a open area with benches and tables.

"Wow, where did you come from?" a blonde girl stands up and asks to me.

I might have leaves in my clothes and hair, not to mention the mud.

"Aah... I'm the new student, Bella Swan."

"I'm Lauren. I heard about you. I just didn't know you would appear from the woods. I'm sure the Chief doesn't live there."

The wonders of a small town. Everyone must know exactly who I am.

"I-I was..." I stutter.

Lauren checked her wrist watch. "Well, you have fourteen minutes before class. What about cleaning up youself before class, wood girl?"

"Uh, that's what I'm going to do."

I walk across the open area, trying not to hear the giggles of everyone sitting there and to hide the blush going up my neck with my hair. The flight to the nearest building is fast. I easily find the girls' bathroom.

The mirror tells me I am a complete wreck. My hair is messy and with several leaves attached to it, I have mud all over me and my breathing is short. I look like a savage. Not seven minutes trying to fix myself cleans up all the mud, but at least the leaves are gone and my hair is back on place. Then I hurry to my Biology class.

I have five minutes and everyone is already there but the teacher.

"Hey there, wood girl." Lauren says out loud from her spot. A girl besides her laughs, and so a couple of other people do. I glance around, searching for an empty spot... There is one, a table far back in the classroom only has a boy with a black hood pulled up listening to music. I put my coat in the hangers nearby the door and walk straight there, looking at my feet, and I sit down, fuming.

The boy giggles. He has his head down, I can only see his black hood.

"I heard in the woods they don't have to ask for permission." he says.

I glare at him.

"Well, I'm so so sorry, sometimes I forget I am in civilization." I retort but don't move an inch.

He openly laughs now and pulls back the hood. I don't expect him to be that handsome, with his ruffled copper hair, deep green eyes and perfectly white teeth, but I keep my scowl.

"Relax, it's just a joke. I'm Edward. And you are Bella."

"Uh, yes."

He smirks warmly at me: "Welcome to Forks, Bella. I suppose we are partners now."