Love on the Road

Chapter 1: Introducing Us

Eliza's gray eyes sparkled as she grinned at me, a mischievous smile playing on her lips. "Bella, if you don't admit that you're crushing on Jace, I'll just go tell him myself."

I groan. "C'mon Eliza, cut me some slack. Why should I have to admit something that isn't true?"

Eliza rolls her eyes. "You and I both know that it's true. So just fess up or I'll have to embarrass you to death."

I hold my hands up in surrender and mumble, "Okay, okay, so I might like Jace just a little bit, but if you tell anyone, I will kill you with my own, bare hands."

Eliza teases, "I'm so scared of you right now, Bella. Are you going to kill me with your amazing klutzy powers, or with your even more astounding blushing abilities?"

I growl at her playfully and she laughs jovially. I smile, letting my growl slip away.

Eliza Fire was my best friend, and has been for 8 years now. We lived in a group that traveled regularly, with only a few trailers and the basic necessities shared between us. Basically, we lived on the road. My parents, Charlie and Renee Swan, had been complete hippies, and had joined this group as soon as they had me.

My childhood was filled with singing around a campfire and being taught in trailers by the adults of the group. It was a joyful childhood.

However, when my parents died when I was 8, I was in despair. Every day, I wished to join them and the others had been concerned with me. When Eliza arrived, alone and also 8, claiming that she had ran away from her foster parent's home because of their cruelness, the others decided to take her in and allowed her to join our life. She and I instantly clicked and we slowly mended each other, stitching each other's hearts together, piece by piece.

I considered her a sister, and I know she did as well.

Now, we were both 16, and the group was considerably smaller as over the years, as people have left to try and get real lives and real jobs, and elders have passed away. But they always died happy, free from the crowds, troubles and complications of the urban life. The group mainly consisted of young people as we rarely got adults and the ones we had either passed away or walked away from us.

Now, there were only about 8 people in our group, two of them being legally old enough to care for the younger ones.

There was Jace, another 16 year old. He was the Puck of our group, always laughing, and planning pranks to annoy the rest of us, especially the guardians. He had always twinkling light blue eyes and tousled caramel hair. He was tall, lean, and tan. He knew how to ease the tension that occasionally built up when we were out of food, or out of other necessities.

And then there was Edward, who was his best friend. He was also 16 and he had bronze hair. It was quite interesting, really. It looked like a yellow, autumn leaf mixed in with flames of a fire. Mix that in with his grass green eyes and he looked like an autumn day. He was also always smiling and being sneaky, although he was a bit more down to earth.

Alice was a bouncy 14 year old, and with her twinkling blue eyes and dark hair, she was cute. She adored clothes, but with our lack of money, she had to deal with snatching fashion magazines off of racks when the owners weren't looking. She was the sister of Edward and their parents had also passed away from a terrible fire that had occurred in the forest. They had been looking for wood. That day was terrible for everyone because Carlisle and Esme were esteemed role models in our group.

Jasper was Alice's boyfriend, and at 15 years old, he was extremely precocious. He had blonde hair and brown eyes, and was very charismatic. He was related to Rosalie- they were brother and sister- and their parents had died on the road many years ago.

Rosalie had icy, cold blue eyes and long blonde hair. Though she looked to be mean, she was motherly and 19, one of the guardians of the group.

Emmett was my brother, and dating Rosalie. At 20, he was the oldest of us all, and strong. He knew how to protect us from gangs or people of the sort. With his brown hair and brown eyes, he looked like a muscly teddy bear. He was over protective of me, which was sometimes annoying, but I loved him, and I was grateful that I had someone from my family left with me.

And there were Eliza and I, close as close can get.

So basically, we were all children of parents who had abandoned us or passed away. It sounded sad and the truth was that it was. But we all dealt with it and we moved on from the mourning. Sure, there would occasionally be tears and needs for comforting, but that was reasonable.

We all received our last names based on our personalities, tendencies, or appearances. We used to have our fathers' last names, but it just hurt too much.

So, Eliza was Eliza Fire, for her feisty and sneaky personality. Edward was Edward Bronze. Rosalie was Rosalie Ice. Alice was Alice Bounce. Emmett was Emmett Bear. Jasper was Jasper Major (because he reminded us of one). Jace was Jace Puck. And I was Bella Blush. (It was going to be Bella Clumsy or Bella Klutz, but I had adamantly refused when we were decided the names, so they gave me this.)

I ask Eliza, breaking the long silence that had passed between us, "Where are we heading next?"

"We'll be staying here for a while for some reason," she answers.

We were currently situated in Forks, Washington, deep in the forest, next to the mountains. It was peaceful and the animals here didn't bother us, though you would expect them to.

"Oh, that's… nice," I murmur.

She laughs and then flips her long red hair over her shoulder. "Yeah, I know. It's boring here, but Rosalie said that she thought we'd be here for another 2 months or so. She's going to find a part time job with Emmett, earn some cash, and then we'll be high tailing it out of here."

"2 months! That is way too long," I gasp out.

"I know. We've never stayed somewhere this long," she groans out.

"Yeah, anyway, let's go and catch fish."

"Ok, sure. I need to use the bathroom quickly. Be right back," she quickly says before heading into the bathroom.

We shared a trailer along with Alice. It was plainly decorated, but neat, and it had a bunch of supermodels and pictures of clothes taped up to all of the walls, nicely done by Alice. Rosalie and Emmett shared a trailer, and Jasper, Jace, and Edward shared a trailer. 3 trailers could rouse attention, but no one cared enough to approach us.

I decide to take a quick nap. It had been a long day, organizing camp here in Forks, and I was feeling exhausted. I lie down on my bed after pulling it out and snuggle underneath the covers. Life on the road was tough, but it was pretty fun.

Okay, so I know that this may seem pretty unrealistic, but this is the world of fan fiction where your imagination can run wild. This idea just popped into my head and this will be more fluff than angst, though I do guarantee some angst, because I'm usually an angst type of girl.

Thanks for reading.