Bella was four years old. She lived with her mother, Renee, and Father, Charlie, in a little house in Forks, Washington. She was happy, but more serious than your average four year old. She also fell down a lot. And ran into walls sometimes because she couldn't turn fast enough. And fell into the numerous puddles which almost always could be found in the streets (for Forks is rainy. Oh so rainy.) She also had a bad habit of tripping over absolutely nothing, but I suppose that's actually the same as falling down but hey, rambling is a fun thing.
One day Charlie and Renee decided they needed to go on a date to try and spice up their marriage. They sort of argued a lot and they knew that wasn't good, especially when they were trying to keep a four year old happy, which is quite a feat.
"We need to call a babysitter," said Renee.
"Oh we do?" said Charlie. Charlie was a nice person, but he was a little slow.
"Um, yes. We aren't going to leave Bella here alone," said Renee.
"But dear. This is Forks. The crime rate is like…" Charlie searched for a number.. "low." And failed.
"Yeah, and Bella's four so that's kind of besides the point," Renee said, rolling her eyes.
"Um, well, yeah. Let's get a sitter then." Charlie agreed.
Four hours later the Swans were feeling very frustrated.
"Are there no teenagers in this town?" Renee asked. "If we lived in a city we could've found someone or at least called an agency!"
Charlie frowned. He'd been hoping his friend Billy Black could watch his daughter but alas, Billy was La Pushing over in La Push. That was what he'd said when Charlie asked. Charlie didn't want to ask what La Pushing was but he thought it sounded important.
And so it was on that fateful day that Renee made one last call to a family called the Cullens, hoping one of the teenagers which had just moved in with their brilliant doctor father, Carlisle, could babysit her child.