Hey guys. Thanks for taking the time to read the first chapter! (Or at least these few sentences) This story is sort of a prequel to my other story, "A Miracle." And I say sort of because Renesmee is never mentioned in this story.

Enjoy and R&R! (read and review!)

If anyone is interested in joining a roleplay of mine, PM me.

Bella POV

It was the first day of college. I was excited, of course, but a little nervous also. I mean, what if I couldn't keep up? This was Dartmouth for goodness sakes. An Ivy League school, somewhere I definitely did not belong. How I got in is beyond my knowledge, but I figured that it might have something to do with a certain pixie friend of mine named Alice.

Alice was rich. And not just any kind of rich, filthy, stinking rich. Her mom, Esme, worked as a chef in a five star restaurant. Her dad had died early, leaving them close to five million dollars in his will. But despite all this, Alice had chosen to go to LIM in New York to get a degree in fashion designing. And she had chosen me to go to Dartmouth. She and her mom claimed that I was some sort of literary genius, which I was most definitely not. I just enjoyed reading and occasionally writing.

Anyways, the first day of college made me anxious. Any firsts always made me anxious, but this was different. It was the deciding factor for the future.

In order to prevent being late, I, along with Charlie, my dad, had arrived three hours before we were supposed to. We grabbed my two suitcases and headed to the main building to find out my room and roommate.

Dartmouth was an old-timey school. It had red brick walls with white tops. It was pretty nonetheless.

We walked in the main building. People were already starting to line up.

"Bells," Charlie said gruffly as we took our place in line. "I'm real proud of you. Just remember that."

I felt tears start to well up in my eyes. "Dad…" I complained, not wanting my first impression at Dartmouth to be of me being a crying mess.

Thankfully, he didn't say anything else. We moved forward in comfortable silence. Finally, it was my turn.

"Name?" the lady said to me. I looked at her name tag. Mrs. Cope, I mused.

"Isabella Swan," I answered. She nodded and looked through the list of names.

"Here you are. You will be staying in the River Cluster. Your room will be French in room 208." She smiled and handed me my room key.

I nodded gratefully. Charlie took both of my suitcases as I looked over the map of Dartmouth Campus. My room was close to the Connecticut River. Thankfully, the library was located in the middle of the entire campus so it wouldn't take that long to get there.

I looked up to see the dreary, overcast skies. I sighed. New Hampshire was turning out to be a lot like Forks.

Charlie looked at me worriedly. "Bells, if you don't like the weather, you could always go to a different college."

I shook my head. As I was looking at the sky, I didn't realize that I was walking towards a small pebble and managed to trip on it. I was sent skidding on the ground, my room key and map flying away from me.

I sighed and got up to pick up my things, but I noticed someone had already done it for me and was offering them to me.

I looked up and was met with the most handsome face I had ever seen in my life. His hair was a bronze, tousled mess. It was beautiful nonetheless though. My eyes got lost in his emerald green ones, sparkling with amusement. The rest of his face was perfection also.

I resisted the urge to jump onto him, to beg him to take me wherever he went for Charlie's sake.

"I best be going now," he said in a velvety smooth voice. I struggled to remember how to nod when he placed the items in my hand.

He took off, running, and only then did I realize that I didn't get his name.

"Wait!" I called after him, but he was too far to hear me.

I turned to Charlie to find him fuming. "You stay away from him, you hear me?"

"Char-Dad, I'm eighteen!"

He looked down. "Yeah, I know," he said quietly.

"But I'll always be your little girl," I whispered back.

He smiled. "Come on Bella, let's get you settled into your room."

We walked in silence towards the River Cluster. When we reached the door of my dorm, I took a deep breath and walked in, taking in my surroundings. The ground floor was pretty standard, white floors, a high ceiling, with a couple of potted trees to spruce the place up. I noticed a woman standing in the corner.

I walked over to her. "Um… I'm Bella Swan," I said awkwardly.

She smiled warmly. "I'm Ms. Arschoff, your Residential Supervisor."

I looked her in the eye and noticed a huge wart jutting out from her cheekbones. I bit back a laugh.

"Let me know if you need anything," she said. I nodded and walked to the staircase.

When I reached room 208, I slid the key into the key hole. I closed my eyes, and then slowly turned the key.

I was ready to make a dramatic entrance into my "home" for the next year, but of course I had to trip over the carpet.

I heard my dad's worried voice say, "Bella, are you alright?" I also heard another voice. Feminine. And a nasal sounding snicker.

I got up. "Dad, I'm fine." I glanced towards the direction of the nasal voice. And saw a girl with short, blonde hair and fishy green eyes. She had on tons and tons of makeup. My heart sank. This is my roommate? I thought. Oh great.

The girl walked over and extended a hand towards me. "I'm Lauren Mallory."

I took her hand. "Bella Swan."

Charlie cleared his throat. "Well, I should probably get going." I walked over and hugged him.

"I'm really going to miss you Charl-Dad."

I saw tears well up in his eyes. "Me too, Bells."

He kissed the top of my head and then left. I felt hollow, empty. I had stayed with Charlie for my last two years of high school. My mom had wanted to travel with her new husband, Phil, so I let her go have some freedom by going to live with my dad. It had worked out for her, and eventually I became accustomed to living in the wettest place in the continental US. That didn't mean that I liked it though.

Lauren offered me a smile. "Do you need help getting settled in?"

I shook my head. "I'm fine, thank you."

She went back to putting up her posters of famous movie stars and setting out her nail polish collection.

I instead flopped down on what I assumed was my side of them room and pulled out my phone.

I quickly dialed Alice's number. She picked up on the second ring.

"Hey, Alice."

"Bella!" she exclaimed in her high pitched voice. I winced.

"How are you liking LIM?"

"It's perfect! I'm learning so much stuff. And," she paused and I could almost see her wink, "it's all about clothes!"

I shuddered.

"What about you, Bells? How's Dartmouth?"

I looked at my dorm room. "It's… fine. Everyone seems to be very welcoming."

I could hear the warning in her voice. "Bella, what's wrong?"

I shook my head. "I'll text you."

I hung up and texted, My roommate is one of those girls. You know, with those movie star posters and all that makeup.

Bella, stop worrying. It's going to be fine.

Alice, you don't understand! I'm going to be stuck in a room with her ALL year!

Alice paused for a moment, and then texted, Just ask to switch rooms.

I rolled my eyes at myself. Of course. Why didn't I think of that?

I grabbed my keys and was preparing to head outside to talk to Ms. Arschoff, but Lauren's voice stopped me.

"Hey, Bella, where are you going?"

I sighed. I couldn't tell her that I was going to switch rooms because of her. It might hurt her feelings.

I shook my head. "Never mind."

She looked at me weirdly and then began squealing. "I'm so excited for this year! I just know we're going to be the best of friends!"

I nodded and said unconvincingly, "Yeah."

I looked towards her posters and noticed that one of them I didn't really recognize. I knew I saw the face before somewhere, but I couldn't place it. I didn't think that he was a movie star.

I pointed to the poster. "Who's he?"

Lauren sighed dreamily. "He's Edward Cullen. I went to high school with him in Chicago. It was such a coincidence that he got into Dartmouth too! In high school, I asked him out a couple times, but he was too busy. Now that we're in college, he should have more free time, right?"

She didn't wait for my response. "He's so perfect! He has the dreamiest emerald green eyes and tousled bronze hair."

My heart started beating at a mile per minute. That sounded like the guy who had picked up my key and my map.

"May I look at your poster?"

"Of course," she responded sweetly. Suddenly, her demeanor changed to menacing. "He's MINE. Don't you dare even think about stealing him from me."

I gulped, but didn't respond. Lauren confused me. One second, she was nice and sweet and then next she was threatening me. I didn't get her.

I walked over to the poster. Yep, it definitely was the guy who had picked up my stuff.

He was perfect. Just like Lauren had described him as. It was kind of scary to think that Lauren and I had the same taste in guys. But I knew it would never work out for me. Lauren was pretty and looked like she was going to be popular and I was just Plain Jane Bella. I had brown hair that never seemed to do what I wanted it to do and plain brown eyes.

Alice thought that my eyes were pretty, but she was my best friend. She had to think that.

All this while, Lauren was still rattling off about Edward. "I think he wants to be a doctor or piano player or something like that. His dad was a doctor, but Edward is really good at the piano. I think that's kind of geeky though. When I'm married to him, I might convince him to quit."

I suddenly bristled in anger. "Piano playing isn't geeky!" I looked up, confused by my actions, my heart still beating quickly.

Lauren backed off. "Okay, okay." She sat on the corner of my bed. "So, what classes are you taking?"

"I'm trying to get a major in English Lit, but I'm also going to take other classes, like Biology and History."

"I'm going to be a model," Lauren said snootily. She examined her perfectly manicured nails. "When I was in high school, an agent said that if I cut my hair, I would fit the criteria for a perfect model. But I never saw him again. He probably died. Anyways, I'm going to model for a company close to here. Dartmouth is just my backup plan. I'm going to take Med school here." She looked away and I could've sworn that she winked at me. "Maybe Edward will be in my class."

Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door. Lauren went to answer it.

"That's probably Tyler," she commented to me on her way. "He's my boyfriend, but he's just there to hold me over until I get Edward."

I furrowed my eyebrows. I never had a boyfriend. I didn't know what having one felt like. What if Edward didn't want me because of that?

I rolled my eyes again. Of course Edward didn't want me. I was just Bella. And if he looked past the exterior, I was just a geek who liked to read.

A boy came walking in. He was handsome, but nowhere near as good looking as Edward. His eyes bulged when he saw me.

"Hi, I'm Tyler," he said, reaching out his hand for me to shake. I shook it and said, "I'm Bella."

"That's a pretty name," he said.

I smiled politely.

"Well, Tyler and I are going on a date, so I guess we'll leave you alone," Lauren said, clinging onto Tyler's hand.

I nodded and began unpacking. Halfway through, I reveled in the aloneness. I stared up at the plain ceiling.

Lauren seemed nice enough. She didn't torment me or anything. All the adults didn't yell. Well, the ones that I came across.

Maybe college wasn't going to be as bad as high school.

My eyes darted to the poster of Edward. They grew wide in disgust as I realized that Edward wasn't a public figure, so he shouldn't have his own poster. That would make Lauren some type of stalker.

I shuddered. Maybe college was going to be as bad as high school.