A/N: All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. All relation to real life people are merely coincidental.

Thanks to my amazing friend Arianna for editing my crazyness and for the amazing Dashzap and Knittingfynatcy on Raverly for helping me control my grammer

Winded Flags and Changing Dreams

Bella:

I had picked the wrong school. Here I was, midway through my first month in college, and I was beyond miserable. How did I go from being that quiet girl in high school who worked on the newspaper and choreographing dances for color guard, to being pushed and shoved around in a college that was supposed to be perfect for me? I was there on scholarship and in the honors college. I was 3,000 miles away from Forks. As I walked back to my dorm after my morning University 100 class, I kept thinking about what Charlie had said to me right as he moved me into my dorm.

You know, Bella, if you're not happy, you can always transfer back to UW. You can be closer to home and go back to doing things you love.

As I checked my Blackberry, I saw there was a text message from Charlie.

Just checking to see how you're doing in the big city. Make sure you have your pepper spray with you.

I chuckled a little bit at that. You would think that being the daughter of a man who was the police chief of a small town would learn how to protect herself. Here I am, living in New York City, following my passion for photography and writing, and all I could think about was what could have been. I quickly threw on my FHS hoodie and sat on my bed, grabbing my yearbook from senior year. Even though forks was a small high school, our yearbook was filled so much that it made it seem as if there were 10,000 people there.

I didn't have many friends at school in NYC or even in high school. Being in color guard, we hung out a lot with the band. I had the girls in the color guard : Irina, the captain; Tanya, the senior who had made all American; Jessica and Angela, the twins; and Rosalie and Alice. They were my best friends. On the first day of 6th grade we were sitting together in Mrs. Keion's homeroom class and instantly hit it off when we saw each other's hot pink Tamagotchi key chains. Jasper Hale and his cousin, Emmett Cullen, were also in our class. When we were all put together for our first big project of the year, we became closer than the molecules making diamonds.

On the day of graduation we all parted ways. Jasper and Alice were heading to Washington State University, where Alice would be on the Cougar Battalion color guard and where Jasper would be on the drum line. Emmett and Rosalie would end up going to the University of Washington, where Emmett would be playing football and where Rosalie would be cheerleading. And here I was alone in NYC sitting with my roommate Kate a as we decided what groups we would join or what bars we would go to. Kate was just finishing up flat-ironing her beautiful red hair and adding a little gold to her smokey eyes. She had on a little purple and silver dress with a crisscross back, threw on some silver heels, and instantly looked like she should be walking on the Victoria's secret runway instead of going out on a Tuesday night. I quickly threw on my black leggings and a little navy long sleeve top and my favorite silver feather necklace. I decided to go with flats tonight instead of my fake Christian Louboutin shoes. I had bough black heels with with a white bottom and colored them red. Alice love the fact that I knew that brand but the only reason I knew them was from the Jennifer Lopez song that she blasted at out last color guard practice of the year, right after we had tryouts for the incoming freshman.

Just as we were about to leave with the rest of the people from our floor in The Towers, the freshman only dorm, I got a text from somebody I had missed a lot,

BELLS-color guard isn't the same without you. Wish we were twirling together! SKYPE ME SOON- AL

God, did I miss her. I hadn't seen Alice in the two months since she'd left for college band camp. Alice, Rosalie, and I had made a pact before we all left that we would make sure that we would get together for Christmas and go to La Push beach and have a bonfire like we used to. We'd even gone behind our families backs and got little tattoos on our inner wrists, a little fork to remind us where we came from. Yes, it was cheesy and it hurt like hell, but rubbing over the little grey and black fork on my inner right wrist oddly made me feel like I was right there doing Peter Pan tosses with Jasper playing drums in the background, standing next to Alice and cheering with Rosalie when Emmett would catch a pass and run for the winning touchdown.

It felt like that was so long ago. Maybe Charlie was right, maybe I did belong in Washington. I texted Alice back quickly before I could start crying and ruin my makeup for going to T.J.'s with Kate and all of her theater buddies.

Al- I miss you so much, I'm rubbing my fork and missing the silverware drawer!- Bells

She would know exactly what I meant when I said the drawer. The more I stayed in New York City, the more I missed my friends.

One month.

I would give myself one more month to decide if it was too much for me to be so far away.

Thanks for reading, lets see what Miss Bella is going to be doing next

Do you see that little review box down there? Can you please click it

Thanks

XOXOXOXOXO

Diamond Camera