Returning Home and Finding the Unexpected

Hi! Long time no see. I know it's been a while since I've posted something on my page, especially a Vampire Diaries/Originals/Twilight crossover. I have been working on this for almost a year, taking notes from A03 readers and betas before I posted it because it wanted you guys to enjoy it. Anyway, on with the show…

Chapter One – Mystic Falls

'Welcome to Mystic Falls'

Isabella Swan sighed as she drove past the welcome to town sign. It has been a long time since she had stepped foot in her home town, almost twelve years. She was returning now, much to her chagrin, thanks to her father. Her father had not deemed her well enough to return to high school in Forks, and instead he had shipped her off to Mystic Falls to live with her Aunt Sara. Sarah was her mothers' sister, and Mystic Falls is where her mother had grown up, before she had eventually met Charlie and moved to Forks. Bella hasn't wanted to move away from Forks, but her father had finally put his foot down after finding her almost catatonic in her bedroom, once again.

Bella sighed again, leaving her head against the passenger side window as her aunt drove her further into town, passing both the police station and the Mystic Grill on the way to the house Bella remembered vividly. It was a large house, and even though Bella had only visited it a handful of times, she remembered it well. It was the house that Bella's mother and aunt had grown up in with their parents before they had died, but by that time Renee was already living in Forks so Sarah had been living in the beautiful house ever since. As they pulled onto the large driveway of the house, Bella let herself smile slightly, fond memories that she had gotten whilst in the house coming to mind. Whilst the house would look ridiculously out of place in Forks, it somehow fit in beautifully on that particular street in Mystic Falls. They hadn't driven far out of town, but it was clear to see that this area of town was for the wealthy. Whilst Bella was aware of her grandparent's fortune, Renee had renounced her share when she had left town at eighteen, something that Bella thought Renee had come to regret years later.

Since Sara had picked Bella up from the airport in Richmond, she had tried her hardest to communicate with the teenager, but all she had received was slight head-nods and hums of agreement. Even though Charlie had divulged details of Bella's recent months in Forks, she knew that it was better if she did not mention anything about it to her, in fear of making it worse.

Bella nodded in appreciation as her aunt held open the front door for her to walk through, putting the suitcase that she had carried in down at the bottom of the stairs.

"I understand that you had a car, well a truck, back home? So, feel free to use the car in the garage, I put the keys on your dresser. I'll go and get the rest of your things in the car." Sara smiled once more before taking off out of the front door, leaving Bella to explore the house. Although she and Renee were sisters, there was a large age difference, so Sara was only in her early thirties which somehow made Bella feel more comfortable.

The first thing that Bella did was look up, and sure enough the chandelier that she remembered so clearly was dangling perilously over her head, shining as the sun from a window upstairs reflected on it.

She ran her hand along the windowsill as she walked into the large drawing room. Isabella could tell that the house had been modernised since she was last there, and that the wallpaper and flooring had been replaced. Her Converse caused echoes as she walked along the shiny hardwood floor from the drawing room and into the kitchen. Unlike the drawing room and hallway, the kitchen was exactly how she remembered it. Bella figured that Sara either liked it enough to keep it the same or never had the time to change it. The white cabinets and marble worktops stood out against the striking red painted walls, but somehow the colours worked. The backdoor that led to the patio was open, wafting a cool breeze into the room.

"I see you found the kitchen, although I'm not much of a chef I suppose." Sara said from behind Bella, startling her slightly.

"Oh, that's no problem, I got around to learning a lot cooking for my mom and Charlie."

Sara smiled, hearing the first full sentence out of the girl since she had arrived.

"I'll show you your room." Sara walked out of the room, hearing Bella's footfall behind her as she headed towards the stairs.

Bella's free hand ran along the sleek banister, whilst the other carried the heaviest of the remaining suitcases up the stairs, Bella figured that Sara had taken the rest of them upstairs whilst she was re-familiarising herself with the house she would now call home.

Sara walked down a long hallway before coming to a stop at a door on the right-hand side. She twisted the doorknob and pushed open the door with her foot, revealing a room that left Bella open-mouthed.

"This room is beautiful." Bella commented quietly, looking around the bedroom. This room had been decorated recently, Bella thought. The grey coloured wallpaper was pristine, without a mark or scratch, same for the shiny hardwood flooring that matched the floors downstairs. The bed was white, with grey and black fresh bedding to match the walls, with a matching white desk and chair to the side of the room.

"I hope you like the room, it's one of my favourite bedrooms in the house. When I decided that I was going to keep the house rather than sell it I had an interior decorator come in a re-style the place. Every room but the kitchen of course, as it was your grandmothers favourite room in the house." Sara looked out of the large bay window wistfully, but Bella barely noticed. She was too entranced by the bedroom still. She ran her hand along the folded towels at the bottom of the bed as she walked to the other side of the room, noticing that she had her own bathroom now in the process.

"This is too much, it's so pretty here." Bella said, looking up and noticing that there was a small chandelier hanging in the centre of the ceiling.

"It's no problem, it's about time some of these rooms were lived in. Only I live here, and the cat of course, and I can't sleep in all of these rooms. It's nice to have come company in this big house for a change. I'll let you settle in, I'll order pizza for dinner and I'll call you when it's here." Sara said as she left the room, closing the door slightly on her way out.

Bella put the suitcase she was still holding down at the foot of the bed, before unzipping it and letting it open. Since she didn't know how long she would be staying, she had packed all of her clothes. Everything needed to be squeezed into a few cases which made it easier for her to pack and unpack. She took one of her favourite tops out of the case, shaking it out to rid it of creases before walking over and opening the closet. If she was surprised by the size of the bedroom, she was even more shocked about the size of the closet, it was every beauty queen's dream. Finding that the closet was already stocked with hangers, she started to hang the clothing items she was pulling from her case. She was just unpacking her last bag by the time her aunt called up the stairs, saying that food had arrived.

"It's still pepperoni you like, right? I should have asked before I ordered." Sara asked apprehensively, hoping she had ordered correctly.

"Yeah that's fine, I'll eat nearly anything on a pizza." Bella joked, laughing for the first time in god knows how long, as she sat down on a bar stool opposite her aunt.

They ate in a comfortable silence, her aunt sometimes asking her about school and letting Bella know that she had enrolled her at Mystic Falls High School. As Bella had arrived on a Sunday, she would be starting school tomorrow.

Once they had finished eating, with Bella nearly polishing off the whole pizza, she returned to her new room to finish packing before she had to go to bed.

She closed the bedroom door so that she wouldn't disturb her aunt with her unpacking. Bella finished hanging the clothes that she had bought with her, leaving more than half of the closet free for clothes that she would probably need to purchase, realising that the weather in Virginia would probably be much warmer than the weather in Washington. Next, she put all her toiletries and the small bag of makeup she owned on the counter in the bathroom. Leaving the rest of her things to be unpacked in the morning, she took a shower, washing the grime from travelling away down the drain.

Whilst drying her hair with a hand-towel, she reached into one of her duffel bags and pulled out a blank notepad and pen before stuffing it into the satchel she would be using for school. Tomorrow would be different, and Bella was nervous. She didn't want history to repeat itself, she just wanted to finish high school with her head down and bother nobody.

Bella went to sleep that night, hoping that her sleep would not be plagued by the family that left her behind.