Backpacking

Hey everyone. So, my new (and first) fanfic. I decided to do it because I've never read a story just like this. (You can and must correct me if I'm wrong) Anyways, let me know what you think. Here's the first chapter, but it's really just a prologue to the story. New chapter coming along as we speak! :D

Backpacking – Chapter 1 Airplane

BPOV

It was the end of June and our last summer before college. Me, Alice and Jasper, my best friends, had graduated from Forks High and would start our studies in Seattle University. Before that we had all wanted to do something adventurous before the end of our carefree high school days.

Deciding our destination had been difficult, to say the least. Alice had wanted to visit every single fashion capital in Europe and visit a beach resort if there was enough time after her shopping excursion – to get a decent tan before college. Jasper, being Alice's long-term boyfriend would of course follow her. Don't get me wrong, Jasper is no pushover. Alice just means so much to her that he doesn't care where they'd be. It just amazing how deeply they are connected. Sometimes I felt like an intruder hanging around them, and they would only be looking at each other, but of course they would never make me feel like I didn't belong.

Yeah, but back to the issue at hand now. I of course didn't want to only visit Milan, Paris, London and Madrid and call it adventurous. The reason I wanted to go to Europe was to explore. Learn about different customs and see all those places I had grown fond of when reading books and that would include cities Alice couldn't probably buy things with labels on.

So, we decided to compromise. We all bought an Interrail ticket good for a month and would travel through all of Europe. And since it had been so hard to determine where we wanted to go, we'd agreed on going to the places we all wanted to see together and go separately to some destinations.

I was excited to say the least. The trip had been a graduation present from my Mom, Renee and her new husband Phil and all the supplies and some cash had been provided by my Dad, Charlie. To me it seemed too expensive a gift, but they just shrugged it off and said I deserved it. Since I had gotten a scholarship to WSU and earned rest of the needed money by working part-time in a local sporting good's store they wanted to help me make this a summer to remember. I was already shivering with excitement as I sat on my seat on a flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Heathrow, London.

"Bella, do you want a drink or not?" A teasing voice woke me up from my reminiscing, not to mention the playful jab I received to my ribs.

I looked to my side and saw Alice, Jasper and a polite-looking stewardess eyeing me with curiosity. I blushed.

"Um…What was the question again?"

Alice's laughter tinkled through the airplane. "Do you want a drink? We're all getting coke."

"I'll just have a coke, as well", I answered quickly to get the attention away from me.

The stewardess nodded understandingly and turned to her drink cart pouring three glasses of coke and than handed them to us with napkins and some free biscuits. I turned to Alice and Jasper.

"Honestly Bella, I called at least a dozen times!" Alice's frustration, due to the long flight, was starting to become evident. Alice was my best friend ever; we had known each other since kindergarten. She was tiny, even shorter than me, but had the energy that a normal person would get by drinking a gallon of Red Bull per hour. She had a short, black hair, a pair of light brown eyes that always glinted and, as Alice would say, an impeccable sense of fashion.

"Alice dear, I told this was to be expected if we let Bella sit next to the window", Jasper said calmly, amusement clear in his voice. He was tall and lean, with a fashionably-cut honey blond hair and ice-blue eyes. He was perfect for Alice, calming her hyper state of mind as much as possible.

Jasper was sitting in the middle and Alice on the isle seat. It was for the best. Alice could be aware of everything and Jasper could protect me from her if she got bored. I had a few bad experiences of sitting next to her on long bus rides and ending up having nails painted in a "adorable" polka dot pattern or cornrows on my head.

Flashback:

"Bella-a", Alice's whiny voice woke me up.

Being grumpy, both from the awakening and the fact that sleeping on a bus seat is never comfortable, I groaned at her and tried to find a better position on the hard seat.

"What, Alice? You know I was kinda sleeping?"

"I saw that, and that's exactly why I woke you up! You have been sleeping for almost the entire bus ride and I'm bored, and I had this amazing idea I'd love to try!" Her giddiness even after a short night (we'd been forced to wake up at five am) was mind boggling.

Uh oh. This could not be good. "Alice, I don't care! I want to relax. I woke up at five, for crying out loud!"

"Big deal. I woke up at three thirty. Besides you don't even have to do anything, while I make you beautiful for our fifth grade field trip." She was sitting on her legs holding a comb and a bag of small rubber bands in her right hand.

"I really don't think the people at the Natural History Museum will care what I look like."

"But I care!" Alice said, a sad little pout forming on her lips. She knew I couldn't say no to that.

I sighed resentfully. "All right, then. But nothing tacky."

"Oh don't you even worry, Bella. These are really fashionable right now, I read it from seventeen."

Seventy minutes later…

"Tada!" Alice said victoriously throwing a mirror in front of me after tugging at my hair and almost ripping it off for over an hour.

I stared at my reflection in horror. "Alice what are these?"

"Cornrows, all the hip people wear these."

"I think you meant all the hip HOP people wear these. Not normal people who like their hair."

Alice just huffed at me and refused to believe that cornrows really didn't suit me. The day turned out to be marvellous with everyone staring at my hairdo. And to top that, it was raining so my hair turned frizzy like it does, which made the braids look even weirder. Not to mention that it hurt a lot to take them off and my scalp was sore for days afterwards.

End Flashback

Oh yeah, and I'm Bella, in case you wondered. I'm eighteen years old (just like Alice and Jasper) and…hmm, how should I describe myself? Normal, I guess. Nothing that would stand out. I have a long brown hair that twists into those irritating waves when it's wet outside, and chocolate brown eyes. I'm about 5'4" tall and I'm incredibly clumsy – I think that should count as a feature, it's a really dominating one. I've lived almost all my life in the small town of Forks, Washington with Charlie. Mom divorced from Charlie when I was ten and took me with her to Phoenix, Arizona – that's the almost part. But I begged her to let me go back and after six months, she finally agreed to let me live with Charlie. Alice was thrilled of course. She'd been devastated when I left and when I returned, we were together 24/7 for two months before she finally agreed to sleep alone.

My life had been really normal for the entire eighteen and some years I'd been alive. I went to school with Alice and Jasper, spent time with my friends and read, a lot. I rarely watched television due to a serious addiction Charlie had on baseball and football. In stead, I read books over and over. Practically all my alone time was reading. I'd never had a boyfriend, though Alice had thrown several "promising" candidates my way. She didn't like me being alone while she and Jasper hung out, but I really didn't mind. Well, maybe I did mind a little, but I just didn't find any of those teenage high school boys interesting. Besides, Charlie being Chief of Police had a tendency to scare the crap out of the brave guys that came to my door. His habit of carrying his gun with him to open the door intimidated them in particular.

I looked to my side and noticed Alice leaning on Jasper's shoulder while he was stroking her hair soothingly. I sighed contentedly. Now that Alice was calmed I could resume my daydreaming in peace.

I though all kinds of things and at some point must have fallen asleep because the next thing I noticed was the ding of the seatbelt sign and the deep voice of our captain declaring it was 18 degrees Celsius in London and that we'd start our descent in about ten minutes.

Alice was already awake and was gathering all the things she had removed from her brown Gucci purse during the plane ride. Jasper was calmly reading Charles Dickens with his things packed and seatbelt on. I also clicked my seatbelt on and placed all my things inside my purse and stuffed the whole thing under the seat, as instructed.

As the wheels of the plane touched the ground with a jolt, I couldn't help smiling. We were in London and about to start a real adventure.

So there you go… How was it?