A/N: I normally don't write something this AU, but I was just messing around telling my friend this story one day, and she encouraged me to post it. This is just something little to set the stage. I hope it doesn't bore you so much that you refuse to come back for an actual chapter.

Oh, and just because I don't post this sort of thing in summaries: A/U, all human. Canon pairings. Will be primarily Alice/Jasper, but include enough of Bella/Edward and Rosalie/Emmett to make them important players. Told primarily from Alice's POV, 1st person, but will occasionally switch around. Hrm...what else? Oh, this is not a songfic, because I typically skip right over the songs when I read them, but as my characters might be inclined to do artsy things (Yeah, it's cliché. So sue me. If something works, it works.), a song or two might make an appearance. Rated M just to be safe, as they say.

Now, without further ado...

Breathe

Alice sits at the top of the university world: with best friends to party with, a brother to torture, a promising start to a career, and a few good hobbies, she knows what she wants and exactly how to get it out of life. But when the future manages to surprise her, can she keep the past from taking over? For now, she's got to trust her instincts and focus on holding the present together. If only she could just get a moment to Breathe...

Prologue: One Year Earlier

My hand hovered unconsciously above my cell as my eyes traveled down the page.

A moment later, my phone buzzed.

"Hey, Alice."

"Hey Rachel, what's up?"

"You have a trasnfer on your floor named Isabella Swan?"

"Bella? Yeah. In 643."

"Her mom called. She's worried about her." I sighed. Helicopter parents drove me nuts.

"Okay. I haven't heard her crying or anything..."

"Mom says she's not like that, but 'something in her voice' made her worry she's not adjusting too well. Mom lives in Florida and Dad in Washington, so mid New York isn't exactly close to home. Mom's worried she feels isolated."

"I suppose. It is only the second day."

"Will you go check on her?" The resident director asked.

"Of course. I'm on my way." I sighed and looked longingly at the play script in front of me. Oh well, I guess old Will would have to wait. It's not like I hadn't read The Merchant of Venice a thousand times; I was hoping to watch the movie again tonight. But, it was my job to take care of the floor of girls, and I always did what I could to the best of my ability.

I walked down the hall to 643, saying hello into the few girls who left their doors open at 12:23 a.m. I couldn't criticize though. I never slept either.

Reaching my destination, I knocked on 643. "Who is it?" a slightly muffled voice called. Oh crap, she had been crying.

"Hi, Bella?" I remembered meeting her on move-in day. She'd said she preferred Bella to her given name, and I hoped that would earn me some points. "It's Alice, your RA?"

"Hi Alice," she sniffled. She held a small dog stuffed animal in her hands.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure."

One word answers, I thought, great! So do I warm her up or dive right in?

"So how are you doing?" Yep, I was a dive-right-in kinda gal.

"Fine," she obviously lied. And sucked at it, for lack of a better word.

I looked at her. "I'm going home," she assured me after a moment. "I just can't do it."

"It's only been a few days, give it a chance. Everyone feels like that at first."

She looked at me, full of doubt. "I wasn't like this before. At Washington state."

"I promise, you're not the only one."

"Did you get like this?"

The lie started to form on my lips, but I decided to bend the truth just a bit. After all, my reality seemed completely different from hers, and I didn't need to get in to that. "Of course I missed the things I'd known and the people I love. That's natural."

"So I'm not a complete freak?"

"No, Bella, you're not a freak at all. This is nothing. My roommate last year, she was so homesick that she could barely function. She cried every night. But she got through it."

"She's still here?"

"Yep," I nodded. I could see I had her hovering near the hook. She just needed to be a little bit closer.

"You just do whatever you have to to make yourself less homesick. You can call home or write e-mails or even letters. And you do stuff here to keep yourself busy. For example, we have a great theatre department and an awesome dance team. Auditions for both are next week. You should definitely come."

"I can't dance," she promised, shaking her head. "I tried gymnastics for a while, but I fractured just about everything you're not supposed to. I'm a total disaster."

I smiled. She was definitely loosening up. "You can dance. And I just happen to be a really great teacher. Our team is all student-taught and you don't have to have experience."

"Maybe..."

"It's settled. You're coming with me. I'll be heartbroken if you don't."

She smiled. "I guess."

Hook, line and sinker. "You'll have to stay until next week, you know."

"I'll stay," she said. "Just to see."

But I knew I had her. I stayed in her room until her eyes began to droop. We talked past two about Shakespeare (although she claimed her favorite play as Romeo and Juliet-yech), amusement parks and sights in the area, her long-distance army boyfriend who she transferred here to be closer to, gymnastics, and dance. And when I finally left room 643 an hour and a half later, I knew I would be seeing a lot more of Isabella Swan.