Summary: Bella has lived in Forks for five, nearly six years. She and her closet friends, Alice and Rosalie, are inseparable. And then Bella's life changes drastically, forcing her to open her eyes and see what is truly important in life.
A.N. So....you have to tell me what you think of this idea! Also, I still only have 1 review for Darkest Disappearances, and while that 1 review is a great review, I'd really appreciate getting more feedback. So, if you guys have the time, read the chapter and tell me what you think!
Chapter 1: The Beginning of All
Alice twirled in front of the mirror and squealed very loudly directly into my ear. "Yeah! It's that time of year again, folks," she chirped into her hairbrush.
Rosalie caught glances with me and rolled her eyes as Alice went on to say, "You know what I'm talking about! The annual McCarty Bash! And everyone will be there! So invite your friends, your boyfriend, and buy a cute dress, because April 22 is just around the corner!"
"Ummm, Alice," I said, "I don't mean to spoil the moment, but we don't have boyfriends to bring."
She pouted at me and collapsed onto her bed. "Thanks a lot, Bella."
I bit my lip and Rosalie stopped painting her nails a strange orange color. "Aw, come on, Al. You're hot. You can get any guy you want. In fact," she began, "I really don't get why you guys don't just ask someone!"
Rosalie Lillian Hale was sixteen and in her junior year at Forks High School. She is tall, blonde, and fabulous, in every sense of the word. Her eyes are an interesting combination of blue and green and her fashion-sense is perfect. Her father left her when she was nine, and her mother was distanced and cold. We were her family, though I could never understand why she and Alice would want to hang out with someone as plain as me.
Mary Alice Brandon ("NEVER CALL ME MARY!") was my age- fifteen going on sixteen. She, like me, was in her sophomore year at F.H.S., and she was so unbearably optimistic it sometimes hurt to listen to her. She is short, though that never gets in the way of her getting what she wants, with spiky black hair and bright honey-brown eyes. Sometimes, I was afraid of her; especially when she managed to get me to go shopping with her. Once you leave the house with Alice, you are signing up for six, seven straight hours of undiluted agony.
And I was just me….Bella Swan. When I moved to Forks after I turned ten, I was a klutzy, awkward kid with no friends. Alice and Rose adopted me immediately and since then we've been inseparable. Compared to them, however, I always felt out of place. Rose was gorgeous in that in-your-face model way, whereas Alice had a spunky, exotic look to her pixie-like features. I was just average, with brown hair and plain brown eyes.
Alice was back on her feet. "Shopping!" she exulted, throwing open her closet and fumbling around in what appeared to be acres and acres of clothes. "We should go as soon as possible!" she said loudly from the very depths of her walk-in.
Rosalie looked at me for a moment, brushing a stubborn strand of blonde hair out of her face. "Can she get lost in there?" she wondered out loud and I shrugged my shoulders just as Alice let out a triumphant wail.
"I found them!" she said, dancing a small happy dance. "The shoes that will match the dress I'll buy at the mall this weekend!"
My eyes narrowed in on the strappy green heels she held in her hands. The heel itself appeared to be about three inches, and I shivered in horror. Then, I realized something. "Alice, I can't go shopping with you this weekend," I grinned. "Charlie is going fishing and I…..am going to Jacksonville!"
Charlie, my father, and my mother, Renee, got a divorce when I was four years old. Renee took me to Phoenix to live with her, but when she got married when I turned ten, I begged her to let me move back to Forks. She now lives in Jacksonville with her husband Phil.
"You're not," Rosalie said without looking up from her now perfectly manicured nails. She blew on her pinky nail and sighed as Alice's great big eyes watered.
"But why, Bella?" she whined, dropping her forgotten heels on her plush carpet. "You can't leave me to shop with Rose! No offense," she said in Rosalie's direction.
I distinctly heard a "None taken!" before she went on, "Who's gonna be my Barbie?"
Walking towards her from my spot in her desk chair, I threw an arm around her shoulders. "Ali, you don't need a Barbie. Besides, I'm sure that you and Rose'll be fine without me."
"B-b-ut! Oh, please, Bella! Pretty, pretty, please!" Alice pouted and her eyes grew wide.
Rosalie smirked; the infamous Hale Smirk that scared little children everywhere and I glared at her. "I hate you," I mumbled pathetically before sighing in defeat. "Fine. I'll stay here and let you shop for me."
"YES!"
_____
"Okay, Alice," I stared her down in the mall's parking lot. "I have rules."
"Here we go again," Rose tapped her foot impatiently and Alice rolled her eyes.
"Number One: I have two vetoes. That is not up for negotiation!" I added as Alice opened her mouth to protest. "Two: No high-heels that exceed the height of two inches. I mean it!"
"Anything else?" Rose asked, shifting her purse to her right arm while clutching a magazine in her left hand.
"You know," I said, thinking, "I thought I had a list full of rules, but…as it turns out, I don't. Nah," I reiterated, shaking my head.
"THEN LET'S GO!" Alice exploded, seizing my wrist with an unrealistic amount of force for such a tiny person, and dragging me across the parking lot.
"Okay….so where do we start?" I wondered, looking around the mall and taking in the hundreds of stores.
Both she and Rosalie stared at me like I was crazy. "Have we taught you nothing?" Rose clicked her tongue. "Shoes, of course!" she stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I looked between the two of them. "Why do I get the feeling I'm about to get dragged somewhere?"
"I have no idea," Alice said innocently.
"Right," I muttered dryly.
"Well, then. Let's get to it!" Alice grabbed my arm again and soon we were zipping past all of the bewildered shoppers.
______
"I'm exhausted," I moaned, collapsing into a wooden bench and rubbing my sore ankles.
Alice and Rosalie, however, appeared unaffected as they patiently sat beside me. I felt like I was surrounded by bags of clothes. Alice had gone crazy as soon as she saw the black flats in the window of the first shoe store. She had nearly twenty bags stuffed into her tiny fists. Rosalie, though way more level-headed, still carried around ten bags, having had a slightly difficult time stopping in the dress department.
Suddenly, Alice poked Rosalie's shoulder and whispered loudly. "Check it out. It's them."
We all turned to stare at the three unfairly gorgeous guys. They were a group, one only accessible by birthright. Everyone bowed down to them; they were the kings of Forks High. And, undeniably, they were all man-whores. First in their group, was Emmett McCarty. Famous for very much resembling a weight-lifter on steroids and playing for the football team, Emmett was seventeen and in his junior year. He was hot, but not my type. He was pale with hazel eyes and dark chocolate curls that framed his face when he let his hair grow out. His current girl-toy was Lauren Mallory, a fake-blonde in Alice's and mine grade who thought she was all that just because she was his conquest for the week.
Emmett's second in command was Jasper Whitlock. Jasper was known for his southern accent he had from living in the South before moving to Forks when he was twelve. He, like Emmett, was seventeen and in his junior year. He stood just a few inches taller than Emmett with dark-gold, shaggy hair and navy eyes that grabbed your attention from the first time you saw him. He was muscular, but not in a frightening way, like Emmett. Unlike Emmett, he played baseball, not football. He apparently wasn't dating anyone at the moment, which surprised me.
But the most popular of them all was Edward Cullen. He was less intimidating than the others, with his lean muscles and crooked smile, but most of the stories told about him were less than flattering. He had emerald eyes that seemed so unique and sparkling you could drown in them, and his trademark was his unruly bronze-colored hair that was untamable to say the least. It still managed, however, to fall into his eyes in a way that caused most girls to swoon. And if he stared at you with that crooked smile and his hair was all messy and gorgeous, you managed to forget that it was said he was arrested four times or that it was told he hid drugs under the floorboards of his huge room at the Cullen place. And while Emmett dated one girl a week and went through them like dark chocolate M&M's, that was nothing compared the hundreds of girls Edward had supposedly seen naked.
Emmett was actually the one hosting the party, the McCarty Bash. It was a tradition, famous to even freshman, which involved inviting every kid in the building and cramming them all together in a mansion-sized house and getting them very, very drunk. It was dangerous, almost, and if Charlie knew I had gone last year with Rose and Alice, he would have thrown a fit and grounded me possibly for life.
Rosalie stared at them and licked her lips. "Life is unfair," she grumbled as they walked towards Lauren Mallory and Jessica Stanley. "How can such beautiful people be such pigs!?"
I snorted, but Alice looked a bit mesmerized watching Edward run a hand through his precious hair. "Let's go," I encouraged, tugging on Rose's arm.
"Bella's right," Alice said, her tiny face scrunching up in disgust as Emmett wrapped an arm around Lauren's waist. "We should hurry before the mall closes."
As we walked to the food court for a snack, Alice seemed to regain the spring in her step as she focused on something hard. Rose and I attempted to guess while Alice furrowed her brows.
"I think she's daydreaming about Cullen," Rosalie said, her smirk coming back to her face.
"Nah," I said, "couldn't be. I bet it has something to do with the ugly color of your nails."
She shoved me and I laughed.
"Seriously, Rose, what is that?"
"It's called Neon Tangerine," she said, studying her bright-colored nails with a worried expression on her face. "Is it obnoxious?"
"No. It's just….really, really bright," I reassured her just as Alice snapped out of her funk.
"Yes!" she squealed, pumping a tiny fist in the air. "That's it! I am forcing us to get dates by the end of the week. Friday at seven o'clock, to be exact."
Rose and I considered this for a moment. "I'm in," Rosalie said, smiling.
They both turned to look at me and I groaned. But as soon as I opened my mouth, Alice interrupted, "And it can't be Jake."
Jake, Jacob Black, had been my friend since I had first moved to Forks. He was two years older than me, seventeen to my fifteen, and he was one of my closet friends aside from Alice and Rose. Other than stealing my first kiss when I was twelve, there was no romance involved in our friendship. And, unfortunately, he was exactly who I was planning on asking.
"But, Allliiiice!" I exclaimed, attracting the attention of other shoppers.
"Tut, tut. No 'buts', Bella," she said in a sing-sang voice.
"Fine," I snapped.
______
"Tonight, tonight!" Alice sang, running a comb through her damp, jet-black hair.
It was finally Saturday night, and at noon Alice had forced Rose and I to come over and get ready for a party that started at seven.
Rosalie's wet blonde hair was wrapped in curlers and her elegant red dress with intricate beading was hanging in the closet.
I was in a robe, waiting with a certain amount of hesitation for Alice to finally show me the dress she picked out.
Twenty minutes later, Alice and Rose were both ready and looking me up and down, nodding.
"Okay, we need a game plan," Rosalie said reasonably.
"Yes." Alice clapped her hands together excitedly. "You do her hair and I'll get her dress and shoes."
It would have been comical, seeing Rose and Alice standing in front of me, Rose holding a curling iron and Alice holding a pair of blue heels, each of them wearing an incredibly stubborn expression, if it wasn't me who they were standing in front of. However, it was me, and I felt incredibly scared.
________
After three more hours of being poked and prodded and tortured, I was finally ready. Rosalie had curled my hair and let it wave loosely down to my back. And I had to admit that Alice had chosen a beautiful dress. It was a royal blue that extended to the floor like an evening gown. It was sleeveless, but Alice had picked out a lacey blue sweater to go over.
Alice was stunning in an emerald green dress that fell just above her knees with an empire waist and beautiful stitching. She wore her black hair in spikes and sparkles were all over her eyelids, making her look more like a pixie than ever.
Rosalie, gorgeous as usual, was dressed in a blood red-colored dress. It was short, yet modest, with ¾ inch sleeves and a black ribbon tied elegantly around her waist. Her golden hair was wavy and cascaded like a waterfall down to her hip.
"Ready?" I asked, staring at our reflections in the mirror. Alice, with her spiky hair and spunky personality; Rose, with her golden hair that fell to her waist like a princess; and me, with dark hair that was curled and clipped back from my face.
"Yeah," Rosalie smiled.
Alice grabbed her small, beaded green purse and chirped, "Let's go!"
And I flicked off the light and shut the door behind us, ever so ignorant to the fact that my life was about to change in a big way.
A.N. So what'd you think? This is my first attempt at an All Human FanFiction, so tell me what you think. I wouldn't post this except the idea was bothering me. I will say that this story and Darkest Disappearance (which, if I may be so bold, can I get more reviews for?) are stories that I update only occasionally. Steven: The Light of My Life and Silver Eyes are my main stories, and they take priority.
Thanks to all who read!
Rose