Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

A/N: I know this is really different from my other work, but I got bored one day and decided to mess around with the idea of exploring some of the other Twilight characters, adding a few new ones, and getting them all a little more involved with the Cullens. I also wanted to explore what Bella might be up to in Arizona at the same time (And there will be a few chapters, or parts of chapters that will be in her pov.) Tell me what you think.

Chapter 1: Change

"I promise to keep in touch, although I'm sure I won't have too much to tell you. Nothing exciting happens in small towns." I pushed a stubborn piece straight brown hair away from my clear blue eyes but it fell right back a few moments, later. I sighed.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay, Heather?" Bella asked for the millionth time. She was my best friend since the first grade, and I knew she was only concerned for me, but I wished with all my heart that she'd just stop asking.

No, I wasn't okay. My parents just died in a car accident a couple weeks ago and I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. Now I was getting shipped off to relatives I haven't even heard from since I was like eight, and I was moving to a sunless pathetic town called Forks.

But I had to put on a brave face for everyone, Bella especially. She had seen me break down when her mother invited me to move in with her after the accident until other arrangements could be made. I let my guard down, had myself a good cry and very loudly cursed my cruel fate. It didn't do at all. Bella depended on me to stay together. I was the one she relied on, and the one who usually made all the decisions about things. Me losing control just threw everything off course until we weren't on a course at all. It was just one bottomless black hole of grief and uncertainty.

I put on a smile for my best friend. "I'll be just fine, Bella. Don't worry about me."

If you ever, you know, need anything…" Bella started.

"I'll be sure to give you a call," I finished. I pulled my friend into a firm hug, knowing I probably wouldn't see her for a while. "Bye, Bella," I said.

Then I was getting on the plane and embarking on my new life with Aunt Gina and Uncle Rich. When I got off the plane, Aunt Gina was already there waiting. I surveyed her carefully as she walked toward me.

She had a long round face with dark eyes and long dark hair pulled back into a bun. She was wearing a dark pink shirt with dark jeans and a black sweater. She was smiling but a concerned look filled her eyes. More pity and more brave faces. Just great.

"Hey, there, honey," she greeted me with her long thin arms. "Are you hanging in there?"

I nodded. "Life happens." I quoted my favorite motto. "You just got to roll with it."

"That's a good attitude, Heather," she smiled approvingly. She gave me one last hug before saying. "I bet you're exhausted from the ride. Let's get you home."

I crossed my arms as we headed outside to the parking lot. Man it was cold here! I remember when I thought it would be a little nicer than this. I mean, after all, Washington wasn't too far from sunny California, and Forks was near the Pacific coast. But while I was at Renee's, she burst my one hope and told me all about the constant rain and the cloudy skies. Well, at least I was prepared.

I climbed into the passenger's seat of Aunt Gina's faded green Subaru Estate and noted how it smelled of coffee, smelly sketchers and air freshener.

As Aunt Gina started the car, she started talking about how much I would love Forks, despite the size and miniature population. She went on about all the friends I would have and how nice it was to live in such a tightly knit community and I had to refrain from laughing. There was no way I would like it here. Like I said before, nothing exciting ever happens in small towns. Ever. Especially in towns where the weather sucked too much to do anything worth while.

After a while, I couldn't take the encouragement any longer and asked Aunt Gina if we could just put on the radio. Music always seemed to calm me. And right now, I needed calm.

Rascal Flatts was playing Life is a Highway. It sure was. I sang along softly as we cruised along, trying to think forward, rather than back. What would my life be like? How would I like having to live with three crazy sweaty boys rather than being an only child? What kind of friends would I make at High school?

I shook my head, not being able to come up with any positive answers.

We got to the house about fifteen minutes later. It was a small two story house, painted strange light blue with navy shudders. My cousins that I hadn't seen in forever, Jackson, Nate, and Gabriel, sitting on the front porch steps passing a football around as they waited impatiently for us to pull in. They looked as though they couldn't wait to get our meeting over with, as though they all had places to be and Uncle Rich wasn't about to let them go off until they had greeted me. I wished they hadn't made such a big deal about me coming to stay with them.

Uncle Rich, salt and pepper hairline residing, and blue eyes gleaming gently, was standing at the base of the steps, leaning against the banister. When I climbed out of the car with all of my stuff, he shuffled over to me and wrapped me in huge bear hug that felt like it would leave a bruise.

"Hey, Uncle Rich," I said in a strangled voice.

"Good to see you kiddo. I wish it were under different circumstances, but we'll make the most of it, won't we?"

"I'll do my best," I replied honestly. When he finally released me, I made my way to the steps to where my cousins were. The one closest to me had dark golden hair that hung over his jade eyes. He was kind of pale looking, but I had kind of figured out after seeing all the people at the airport that the washed out look seemed to be "in" in Forks. "Gabriel?" I guessed as I surveyed him. Gabriel had always been the blonde and artistic one in the family. He was also my age.

"The very same," Gabriel grinned as he embraced me considerably more gently than his father had. "How you hanging in…"

"Don't you dare ask how I am," I whispered in his ear, "or I will seriously slap you."

I pulled back to find him grinning at me knowingly. "Nice to see you too," he covered for me. I returned his smile before moving on to the next cousin.

Jackson was the youngest, being about 14 ½ but he tried to act like he was older. He had his arms crossed over his chest and sported an "I'm too cool for you" attitude. I rumpled his thick, already messy brown hair before giving him a hug. "Some things will never change, Jacky. Good to see you."

Jackson glared as he hugged me awkwardly. "Don't call me Jacky or…"

"Love you, Jacky," I said sweetly and I kissed his cheek.

He must have been pretty close to smacking me because Uncle Rich grunted and called Jackson's name in a sort of "don't you dare" tone.

Lastly, I turned to Nate, the oldest, who would be graduating next year. His hair was the darkest of the three brothers and very likely the neatest, even though it still had a sort of easy style to it. His eyes were dark green, almost to the point where they looked both brown and green. He looked me up and down carefully. "My you've grown up," he commented with a smile. "I'm going to have to keep a constant eye on you when school starts."

"I can take care of myself, thanks." I told him kindly, before hugging him too. Nate had always been the party, sort of bad boy with a good heart that never let his siblings get away with doing half the trouble he gets himself into.

Aunt Gina and Uncle Rich were right behind me on the steps and were starting to show me into the house when Nate and Jackson made their excuses to leave. Jackson had football practice and Nate had a date. That left me with Gabriel who took my bags from me and started to lead me up the narrow stairway to where my room would be.

"Why don't you have someplace to go?" I asked him curiously.

"I'm working on writing this book. I'm almost done and then I'll be able to submit it to a publisher."

"You write?" I stopped on the stairs and looked at him as though I was seeing my cousin for the first time. "That is so cool, Gabriel. What are you writing? May I read it, please?" I loved to read in my spare time. Action novels spliced with romance were the best. I wonder if Gabriel's writing is anything like that.

Gabriel almost seemed to blush. He looked down embarrassed. "You wouldn't like it."

I put a hand on my waist and mock glared at him. "Don't pretend to know what I like and don't like, Gabriel Morgan. You can leave what you have on my bed and I'll look at it tonight."

"It's poetry, he replied sheepishly, "but about your room. You ought to know before you go in there that it's a little crazy."

I had been expecting that. "What? Did you boys clear a space for me at the last minute or something?" I asked.

"No," Gabriel said slowly, "It was all Nate's doing. He invited a bunch of girls over to help decorate and put your room together. It was like a party. There were like 6 of them all crammed in that room with music blaring. Well, they all had their own tastes and ideas and Nate let them do what they wanted, thinking it all looked good to him. Long story short, it's really mismatched."

I opened my mouth, shut it, and shook my head. Only Nate would be that creative. "Let's go check it out," I declared bravely. Deep down, I was fairly apprehensive.

I pushed open the door and just gaped.

First off, the furniture was completely mismatched and old. The bookshelf, while I was happy to have it, was made of this really light wood while everything else was a range of darker hues. The dresser, having a rectangular mirror attachment, was made of really dark wood with faded gold handles that looked like they were going to fall off at any moment. It had tacky pink stars that were painted over the drawers. Oh dear.

The bed was pressed between the side wall and the back wall and had no back board. What really bothered me was the black and purple plaid comforter with the red sheets and pink pillows. I shut my eyes for a moment, hoping the abuse of color would disappear, but the eyesore was still there when I reopened them.

The good side was that I forgot the bed as soon as I saw the walls, which was the worse sight in the whole room. Part of a wall was covered from floor to ceiling with posters of country artists. The part next to it was covered in pictures of people I didn't even know, although I did recognize some with Nate, Gabriel and Jackson. Another part had nice miscellaneous art work and paintings of beaches and flowers, winter scenes and New York City, as well as stills from the African Savannah and little puppies and kittens. Another part looked kind of…gothic. There was black wall paper with skulls and crossbones on it with some red roses stapled to the ceiling. I grimaced. When I turned around, I found another part completely pink with a pink with white polka dotted wall lamp nailed into the wall. It was next to the bed. Another part of a wall was blue with sea shells, and that was right by a faded redwood colored desk that had a blue lava lamp. I looked up at the ceiling briefly and realized that the whole thing was painted to look like the sky. Half was night while the other was day with the sun and moon, starts and clouds. There was an old fan up there too with a light that looked like it had one busted bulb. Across the whole of the room were white Christmas lights, the only consistent thing in the bedroom.

I turned to Gabriel, trying not to look too mad. "Was it a joke?" I asked.

"You hate it, don't you?" he asked uneasily as he took another look about my crazy room.

"Hate doesn't even cover it," I told him, trying to keep my voice down so I didn't burst. I ought to be grateful that my aunt and uncle were taking me in but still! This was absolutely crazy! What had possessed Nate to let his girlfriends so this.

"Well, don't tell Nate." Gabriel advised. "He thought the girls did a good job and he seemed pretty excited for you to see it. He was hoping you might give some big compliment that he could pass on to the girls. The put a good 4-5 hours into all this, you know?"

I opened my mouth and shut it again. I was quiet for quite a while before I was able to say slowly, if not with a sarcastic edge to it, "I'll tell him how much I love it at dinner. After all, the posters are cool, and the whole theme, is very creative to say the least."

"I really have to get to my book," Gabriel said, "but later you can tell me what you really think, the unabridged version, and I swear I won't tell a soul."

I cracked a smile despite myself. Gabriel always had that effect on me. "I'm going to need to talk to someone about it," I told him seriously, "preferably before I burst."

I heard Gabriel laughing as he walked out the door and back down the stairs. I shut the door quietly, then picked up one of the fluffy pink pillows and threw it at the Goth wall. Then, kicking my bags off my bed, I threw myself on it and cried all the tears I had pent up since the night of the accident until I fell asleep.

Like it? Hate it? Please let me know what you think. I'll be posting the next chapter soon and I'll be introducing some of the canon characters. Yipee!