Author's Note: So, lately, when I get around to updating (which isn't often) the time in between just gets longer and longer. Sorry about that, but I have school, and friends, and boys, and whatnot. Plus, I've been a little off my writing game lately. But I do have this really great idea for a non-Twilight one-shot that I'm really eager to get started on… but last night when I was hanging out with some of my friends this sort of popped into my head. It's going to be a sort of alternate universe thing… no vampires, no werewolves, nothing like that. Everyone is strictly human. But I'm going to try to keep the characters sort of in character besides that.

Come Whatever May

Chapter One/ Introduction (Bella's POV!)

"Come on, Bella. It's Forks tradition! We have to get someone, it's already October 7! The window of opportunity is quickly running out!" I didn't have the energy to point out to Jessica, that even if I had wanted to do this, October had 31 days in it so we had plenty of time for our so called "window of opportunity. Its best not to get her started if it was at all avoidable.

Right at this moment, we were standing on my wet front porch. I had barely been in Forks for a month and already I was doing something I had no desire to do at all. But, seeing how I had no desire to move to Forks in the first place, it seemed fitting.

You see, my mother and father had recently been attending marriage counseling (the product of an early marriage and stressed lifestyle) and they had come to the conclusion that a change in scenery would do wonders for all of us. This decision, I must point out, was made without even offering me a chance to air my views. So, we had traded in our 2 bedroom, 3 bath apartment in Phoenix for a small house in a town called Forks (which, incidentally, was the very same town that my dad had grown up in, coincidence? I don't think so) that had maybe 500 people on a good day. But I have a feeling that this is severely over estimating. My mom, a teacher, had found a job teaching Career Planning at the high school, the very same high school I would be attending. My dad, moving down from the high-risk office of Sherriff in Phoenix, seemed to get the Sherriff job in Forks without the public even voting. Apparently, the constitutional rights mean little in a small town. But the public didn't complain, and my dad was all too happy to be dealing with invading cats in the local over-80 crowd, then the murder cases he had to deal with in Phoenix. It was all peachy keen for them, and who was I to mess it all up for them? Only their daughter, and surely I could deal with it.

That's how I ended up standing on my front porch with a girl who was overly talkative and only too eager for a chance to hang out with a band of local boys. Activity planned for tonight: the annual tee-peeing of Forks, apparently a time-old tradition. A time-old tradition I had no intention of becoming involved in.

"Jessica, don't you think this cliché "tradition" of teepeeing Forks is wearing a bit thin? I mean, could we get anymore teenage run-of-the-mill comedy?"

She gave me a blank stare and her eyes definitely had a "Huh?" look in them. Several minutes passed before I let out a frustrated sigh and it seemed to break Jess' gaze. She shook her head wildly, making her curly tresses bounce wildly like some kind of twisted hair pogo stick. Then she said, quite simply, "Bella. Get. In. Mike's Van. Now." As if to back up her statement, my front door pushed open and my mom stuck her head out.

"Bella, honey, go with the girl already. It'll be fun." Then she clicked it shut, I wondered how long she had been listening. I turned back to Jessica; she was sporting a triumphant (and slightly mocking) grin.

"Listen to your mommy, Bella, like a good little girl and get in the van." I gazed out to the street, where I could just barely make out a dark blob that I assumed would be our ride tonight.

I sighed and threw my hands up in reluctant surrender, "Fine, I'll go. But, just to let you know, Mike has a Suburban, not a van."

Jessica squealed, a sound that sounded rather like a dying cat, and I heard an identical squeal from behind the closed door. We both rolled our eyes as; once again, the door popped open.

"Sorry, couldn't resist. But if you get caught by your father, I thought you were upstairs." Great, one parent telling you to lie to the other, isn't that like against rule number one in the parenting handbook? Thought so. I shook my head and waved, shuffling my feet slightly as Jessica tugged me to the van (and the boys, ugh) by the hand.

As we approached Mike's beat up and dented Suburban (not van!) I could hear a strange shuffling noise coming from inside, and muted whispers of, "Move that burrito, Jesus, how long has this thing been in here Mike?" and "Somebody throw up an air freshener or something, I'm sure that girls don't like the smell of sweaty t-shirts and month-old flash frozen reheated Mexican." Fantastic.

The overhead lights blinked on as someone popped open the front passenger door, and the back right hand door, and two boys stepped out. I could barely make out their faces, even with the lights; it was so typical of Forks to be overly dark and rainy. I finally made out Mike, who, very uncharacteristically, wasn't driving, but had saved one seat in the farthest row back for me. Jessica, I assumed, would get shotgun with Tyler (who would apparently act as our get-away driver.) I didn't miss the covert dirty look Jessica threw me while under the pretense of fixing her jacket before she slipped in the front seat, leaving me no choice but to slide in next to Mike. I was practically smooshed up against the window, trying to put space in between me and the boy next to me. I had one last look at my mother's grinning face before the doors slammed shut and the lights automatically shut off. We were off. With a soft release of breath, I had one thought, "Come whatever may."

Author's Note: Welp, this first chapter is insanely dull, but I had to set up the story. Just to make everything clear: Bella is human. Her parents are semi-happily married. Edward will be human, along with the rest of the Cullen's. I'm not sure if Jacob will be involved with this story, but probably, and he will be, you guessed it, completely human. No Victoria. No Volturi. No vampires. No vampires. So, I'm back, again, after yet another long absence. WOO AND HOO FOR ME AND ANYONE WHO LOVES ME (or at least semi-tolerates me) OR LIKES MY STORIES!

Songs that cured my writing block that had been obscuring me for the past month and a half:

All Around Me-Flyleaf

Curse of Curves-Cute Is What We Aim For

My United States of Whatever- Liam Lynch

Basically the whole Boys Like Girls CD

There's a Good Reason These Tables are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought of it Yet-Panic! At the Disco

Straightjacket Feeling-All-American Rejects

Wow! I Can Get Sexual Too!-Say Anything