Author's Note/Full Summary: A girl, Lila Moreau, who has been away from her hometown for a year, comes back to it for her senior year of high school. In returning, she comes back to her best friends and the boy, Mason Barlowe, she had always been in love with but would never admit it. He isn't the person she once knew, and surprise surprise has been turned into a vampire.

In the midst of this, the vampire conquests have begun again in the South all under the Volturi's nose. Alice has foreseen Lila and Mason and sends Edward and Bella to keep them safe. But with Edward and Bella (who has been changed) comes the vampires thirsting for another city. And three vampires in one city are too much for those hungry for conquest. Some one has to go. The prologue is Lila and Mason.

Disclaimer: S. Meyer owns Twilight. I own Lila and Mason.

Please, this is just a random bout of inspiration, I don't want to hear complaints about Mary Sue's or this that and the other. Read to enjoy, not to flame. Constructive criticism welcome.

And a special thanks to my wonderful Beta Mashiitastic. She also came up with the summary, and I added to it. Gracious!

Prologue

The seconds were ticking.

They stared into the darkness, fingers intertwined, and at least one of their hearts pounding. Her breathing was coming in short quick gasps. He could hear the quiet footsteps growing ever closer to where they were hiding. With an unnatural grace, he pulled her closer and stared into her eyes while running his hand down her cheekbone. She pressed her lips to his one last time.

He pulled away too soon, and she knew she was testing his limits. The taste lingered on her lips, but before she knew it he had taken a defensive stance in front of her, crouched low and what sounded like a snarl coming from his chest. Two other growls rose from the darkness beside them and she looked over to her new friends, that were also in danger, their pale skin glowing in what little light there was.

She was sure the end had come as the dark figures appeared from the shadows, eyes filled with hunger.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Music still blaring, my car slowed and sputtered to a stop in the parking lot. I peered into the mirrors double checking that I was actually in my assigned place and shut the engine off. This wasn't supposed to be this hard. Sighing loudly I laid my head on the steering wheel and tried to calm my breathing.

I wasn't exactly worried about this being the first day of school, my last first day of high school. It was my senior year, exciting huh? Coming back to the place that had been my high school for two years didn't bother me either. In all honesty, I was excited to be home and be back. It wasn't the tangible things in this place that bothered me, it was the intangible.

The memories.

So maybe that was a dumb reason to be so worried and well, it was, I wasn't afraid to admit that. There was just so much history here that I didn't know how to handle the flood of emotions that came with being back here. And there was the cause of them all, Mason.

Mason Barlowe had probably been my best guy friend since the beginning of our time at Bridgeview High. We talked nonstop, until I complicated things. I sorta, kinda, maybe, accidently, may have fallen in love with him. Out of the blue he had stopped talking to me, the texts, messages on IM, all of it came to a sudden halt a little while after I moved. Maybe it was because I had dropped too many hints by accident and things got awkward. I sure as heck never told him anything.

It wasn't so much my feelings for him that were slowly dissipating as it was the fear I had for our friendship. I hadn't spoken to him in almost a year and felt like an idiot for caring so much about it.

Pushing down the nauseous feeling in my stomach, I shoved the car door open and stepped out, letting the breeze catch in my hair. Other students were milling around in the parking lot, laughing and telling stories about their summer. Quickly I grabbed my bag from the back seat and threw it over my shoulder, locking the car as I did.

As I began my walk across the parking lot to the gym doors, I could feel a pair of eyes fall on me every few feet. Sure, I was foreign to them, my hair was cut shorter and it was lighter, I was a little taller, and the braces were gone, but did they really have to stare?

Ignoring their curious glances, I pulled the doors open and slipped into the gym trying to blend in and be invisible. It was completely crowded and loud, as almost every student ran around looking for old friends and their homerooms. The freshman huddled in small groups in the bleachers almost afraid to look at the upperclassmen for too long.

Heart pounding I looked around anxiously for my small group of best friends who had no idea I was returning. Okay, so I lied to them almost all summer, but that's what it takes to keep a surprise a surprise sometimes.

"Lila?" The sound of my name shook me from my thoughts and I spun around to face Natalie, Macy, and Alyse and the looks of complete and utter shock plastered on their faces. Sitting my bag down in the bleacher below them, I smiled and folded my arms across my chest.

"Really guys, your faces are going to get stuck like that if you keep on staring." A few seconds of awkward silence fell over us before we squealed simultaneously and enveloped each other in a huge group hug.

"You-and you're-here-with us-at school-why-how?" Alyse stuttered still completely surprised.

"Well, I talked it out with my parents and my aunt, my parents agreed to let me come and stay with my aunt, so here I am! I couldn't miss my senior year with my best friends. Okay, wow that was cliché." Stepping carefully over the bleacher seats, I sat down between Alyse and Natalie.

We easily ignored the principal's "welcome back" speech, catching up quietly over his discussion and laughing loudly in the most inappropriate places. I hadn't truly realized how much I missed after being gone only a year and it was surreal. There had been plenty of fights, new students, a few foreign exchanges, shifted lunch tables, new loyalties, a change of friends; high school was definitely more complicated than usual. Most of it was petty drama that no longer mattered. I couldn't help but see Macy's darting glances around the gym and the semi cautious expressions my friends hid under their smiles.

As the principal released us, we grabbed our bags and made our way down the stairs of the bleachers. I was chattering mindlessly until I noticed no one was answering. Pushing past a freshman, I got to the gym floor and stared up at my friends.

"Guys? Hello?" They were standing completely still, frozen, their expressions ranging from worried to an angry glare radiating from Macy. Geez, if looks could kill.. It was then that an almost musical, pained voice cut through the silence catching me completely off guard.

"Lila?" I stopped breathing for two seconds and slowly turned to match a face with that near perfect sounding voice.

All of my previous built defenses and walls came crashing down.

It was like locking eyes with a complete stranger, a year couldn't change a person that much could it? I had always teased him about being so white and doing nothing but burning in the sun, but he was much too pale for this time of year. It wasn't exactly a sickly color, but a smooth alabaster free of any blemishes. His dark hair was carefully gelled in disarray on top of his head. It was a little longer than I had remembered it, considering it now curled slightly on the ends. My eyes curiously ran the length of his body taking in and noting of the vast differences from the person I thought I knew.

But his eyes.

I looked into his eyes once more. Normally there was a glint of arrogance in his gray blue eyes. Many times I found myself staring into his for a few seconds, reveling in every millisecond of that time before I tore my glance away and he looked down silently. They were always smiling and full of life.

They were now dead.

His previous color looked as if it had been stripped and replaced with a ghastly golden yellow. I couldn't come up with a name for it, in fact I could barely think right now. The yellow faded and twisted itself into a small ring of glowing red around the edges and darkened to pitch black around his irises. To be honest, they frightened me and the thought of them being permanently imprinted in my mind made a shiver ripple through my body.

"H-hi Mason," I finally managed to say, tearing my eyes from his. He looked almost as shocked as my friends had, but his expression was that of torture, as if someone was stabbing him with hot pokers all over his body. Mason winced and forced a smile.

"What, what are you doing here?" he sputtered, clenching his hands into tight fists.

"I-um, transferred back. So, I'm here for senior year, I, well, I couldn't stand being away from here." Could I have sounded anymore ridiculous? Oh, yes. He opened his mouth to answer me but Macy grabbed my arm and began dragging me off in the opposite direction.

"We have to go, don't want to be late," she spat at him, not allowing me to say goodbye. Macy waited until we were out of the gym to let go of my arm with Natalie and Alyse close behind.

"What do you think you were doing?" Alyse put a comforting hand on my shoulder and shook her head at Macy disapprovingly.

"Come on Lila." Alyse turned me in the opposite direction and led me down the hall towards our homeroom. "She's been like that since you and Mason, well, you know." I had always loved Alyse to death. She always knew the right thing to say and when to say it. The most objectively opinionated of my best friends, it was easy to go to her for advice.

"Wh-what happened to him?" I stuttered. My mind had become incredibly clouded still trying to comprehend the shock of his appearance. We had reached our homeroom and Alyse and I grabbed two desks in the back of the room. She leaned across her desk and began whispering what she knew.

"Last school year around Christmas break, Mason basically fell of the face of the earth. We had all heard from him that his parents were going out of town and about this huge party his friends wanted to have. I honestly don't think he was really into the whole 'tear up the house, get drunk, and sleep around' scene. Anyway, everyone was waiting on the confirmation about the party and it never came. Actually, no one had heard from Mason since we had gotten out for our break, including his insane friends." Laughing quietly to myself about her remark, I couldn't help but interject.

"Didn't anyone care enough to call him or check on him, or something?" Alyse shook her head and continued.

"I wish that was the case. After you left he got incredibly arrogant and big headed. No one really liked him at all, but his so-called friends were too chicken to say it to his face. I don't think they cared. When Christmas break ended, everyone came back to school and acted like nothing had ever happened until they took notice that Mason hadn't come been there in a week. People started talking. I swear I've heard every rumor there is to know. When we started seeing him again, he was-well he.." she paused, stuttering over her words to find the right one, "-he was different. He began to shy away from everyone and rarely spoke unless spoken to. No one could put their finger on what had changed. The guys wouldn't talk to him because all of the girls were swooning over him. I won't lie to you; even I think he's drop dead gorgeous, but not my type." We laughed loudly earning a stern glare from our teacher.

"I don't get it," I answered in disbelief, "just because he was different, people ignored him. That's ridiculous."

"That's high school. No one wants to explore and the unusual is social suicide. People now thought they had an excuse not to talk to him and they took advantage of that." The bell rang as she finished her sentence and I followed Alyse out of the door. Waving at her hurriedly, I began my trip to my next class, my head swirling with what she had just told me.

I had spent most of the morning listening to Macy complain about Mason and about he thought he was hot stuff and had every girl chasing after him. She yelled about how he got what he deserved when they stopped running after he turned them down. Unfortunately, Macy was as happy as a clam about the whole situation because she had never liked Mason one bit. After he stopped talking to me, she decided to tell me "the truth," about how much of a jerk he was and how she had never liked him.

We walked together to our next classes and I listened to another row of insults. Seriously, would she ever run out of a way to put someone down? Quickly saying bye, I veered off into the JROTC staff office to stop I and say hi to our instructor before I went to the actual classroom. This place was home to the cadet staff offices, supply room, and the instructor's offices.

"Hi Colonel!" I called out over the familiar squeak of the door.

"Lila," he answered almost excitedly, "we are so glad to have you back." I smiled and leaned against the door frame to the office.

"You wouldn't believe how glad I am to be back. The program at my other school was a complete mess. I can't believe they demoted me, to an enlisted rank!" When I had moved before the start of my junior year, I switched ROTC programs. Leaving here with an officer rank, they started me there with an enlisted rank. Patience is a virtue, a virtue they better be glad I had.

"Well, you won't have to worry about that much longer. Welcome back Vice Group Commander and Cadet Colonel Moreau." Wait, was this really happening? I was back, in what was supposed to be my spot this year, and fully promoted now. No. Freaking. Way.

"Are you kidding me?" I couldn't manage much more that that and I knew my face was twisted up in a look of disbelief.

"Not at all, as soon as I saw you back on my roster, we moved things around and switched your schedule around so you would be in third period with Mason. He is our Group Commander this year. Now I hope you don't mind that, but I knew there would be no power struggle between you two, and I needed you in a place where you would be able to work." My heart stopped for a moment, regaining a ragged pace. Of course fate would have it that I would be working under Mason. It was how things were supposed to turn out. We had competed for so long for his spot and he had actually gotten it. Stupid him.

"Oh, I don't mind at all. It's just good to be back in power." I laughed uneasily and turned to pick up my bag. "Let me get down there to tell the boys that Lila is back and in power once more." The two second trip to the JROTC room was much shorter than I'd hoped it would be. It was no surprise that he would be there. Peering around the corner of the door, I checked out the room. Luckily enough he wasn't in, but so many of my friends from before were. Sighing in momentary relief, I entered the room. Most of them stopped talking and stared as I took my place in front of the classroom.

"What, no calling the room to attention for your Vice Group Commander and a cadet Colonel? I'm ashamed." It was common courtesy to call the classroom to attention for any officer that walked into the room unless there was a higher ranked officer already in the room. My classmates quickly snapped to attention and stood there waiting on me to call at ease and let them go back to what they were doing. Just then, my tough man-well woman-façade fell apart as he entered the room. He hadn't taken notice of me yet as he had been looking at the class wondering why they had already been standing at attention.

"Why are you- " His musical voice halted abruptly as Mason now stared at me. Everyone in the room could have cut the tension with a knife and you could see the obvious awkwardness written all over their faces. "Oh." If his face could have paled anymore, I think it would have. A blush was creeping up my cheeks, burning my face as it did.

"Hi partner." I mumbled.

Forks, Washington.

"You have got to be kidding me!" A disgruntled Emmett stalked away from the heavy boulder where Bella had, once more, beaten him in an arm wrestling match. Small tick marks had been scratched into the side of it for each of Bella's wins in his numerous rematches.

"Are you ever going to learn? I'm still stronger than you Emmett!" Bella laughed. She flitted gracefully to where Edward was sitting. He and Alice were sitting motionless staring at a chess board trying to out think the other. Edward growled and his eyebrows knitted together.

"She's translating War and Peace into Spanish, French, and Pig Latin," he spat, surrendering the game and tossing the board into the box. "Alice, next time you try that I'm going to-" The whole room went silent as her face suddenly went blank and her stare lengthened. Alice's gaze was unmistakable; a vision had overcome her senses. Carlisle and Esme rushed into the room.

Moving faster than the speed of light, if it was possible, Jasper was at her side, his hands on each side of her face. She blinked twice and shook her head as if trying to clear a fog from her mind.

"Jasper," she said, her voice strained, "you need to go, now." His golden eyes widened.

"What is it? Is it Mason? Something's wrong." He was mumbling incoherently, pacing and planning his next move as Alice placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Nothing has happened, nothing was supposed to, he's been okay, what's going on?" Bella's mouth was agape, she had never seen Jasper so on edge since she had been changed.

"I'm so sorry, I've been keeping an eye on him, but there are well-complications." Her eyes flickered to where Edward and Bella were standing and back to Jasper's face.

"What do you mean complications?" Alice sighed and stared once more at Bella's hand in Edward's.

"There's this girl."

So there it is. I personally don't like the very beginning, but that's for you all to decide. Also, Group Commander-a cadet in Air Force JROTC in charge of all of the students and the whole program. Vice Group Commander- The group commander's right hand man. The scene with the Cullens was in no particular POV, there will be a few more of those. I just hate using their names so much, any suggestions on how not to do that would be great. Review?