AN: I really hope that you can enjoy this first chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it; as complicated as it was to start it. This first chapter is more like a prologue/introductory. Please review!

Comments, thoughts, criticism (be gentle) are welcome.

11-25-11 -I'm coming back to edit everything. I started writing without a Beta and as my first story and with poor grammatical skills; I think this was a disaster. I tried fixing it a bit. It will take me a while to fix those chapters that weren't beta-ed. :/ But somewhere along the line you'll start noticing the difference in my writing-hopefully for the better. :D

Twilighted with a wish

Chapter 1

Caught up in the everlasting "democratic" discussion of our current obsession, my friends and I could not help but differ in opinion. You see, for a group as "politically involved" as we were in the current subject, a simple yes or no was not sufficient. It was our duty, our obligation as "politicians" to extend our answer to the point where the original question no longer mattered.

"What do you mean, it depends?" exclaimed Nat, a.k.a. Natalie Gomez; a five foot seven, auburn hair hottie with an attitude.

"It's not that complicated, it's either or, one or the other, him or that, simple as that, not 'it depends'!" she continued, with frustration clearly visible.

"Nat, you really don't expect me to choose so easily without considering the pros and cons do you?" I answered, faking shock with her lack of thoughtfulness, sarcasms spilling out on every word I breathed.

"Out of everyone Nat, I honestly expected YOU to understand me best!" I continued dramatically. "Have you so easily forgotten, the segregation that simple question has caused in our community, let alone in the world!"

"Oh please, are you serious? Forget you, what's your pick Kay?" she said turning to our other friend, who elegantly chooses to stay out of this particular conversation.

"Sorry, Nat can't answer you right now; they just called your name. I'm going to go get our coffees and frappuccinos and what not." She quickly got up and left our corner table, conveniently situated outside in the balcony overlooking the park across the street. With an average ninety-five degrees outside, it was a normal day in Santa Monica, California.

I watched my friend get up to get our drinks. The things we put her through, it's a wonder she hasn't left us for another group of friends. We're horrible for her! She's the quiet, shy girl that stays away from trouble, the perfect daughter, perfect student, and definitely the perfect friend. I know she secretly yearns for her own drama filled adventured, I mean who doesn't? But she's too scared to go after it on her own. That's why she has us, crazy Nat and me. We make sure no one hurts her. You can call us her protectors if you want, or whatever, because we do tend to get very protective over her. With the kind of beauty she carries, it's a wonder she isn't married yet. But that's our job, keeping nasty, harmful guys away from her. We make sure that if anyone is going to get close to her we find out what he really wants first. We love her, but she is very naïve and gullible sometimes.

With a sigh and a small smile creeping its way out, I said "We shouldn't make her choose sides on this issue Nat, it's like making her choose between you and me, and that's not fair at all"

"Yeah, but if you would just pick quickly without so much complications, we could have avoided all of this!" she said very could tell she was trying real hard not to let the laughter that was boiling inside of her come out. In fact, I was doing the same thing. This entire situation was way too funny. We couldn't hold it for long though, seconds before Kay reached us we busted out laughing,

"Glad to see you two are enjoying yourself while I carry all the drinks." Kay interrupted with sarcasm.

"Oh Sorry Kay, just trying to make her choose," replied Nat

"Sorry, which ones mine? I can help you with that one if you want." I said slightly facing her with a grin on my face, wondering what her reaction would be. But she looked at me about ready to throw my drink on my face.

"Kidding! Just kidding! I'll take mine, thank you!" I said before I had the opportunity to taste my white chocolate frappuccino with my eyes. Not something I was looking forward to by the way.

"So it's settled?" said Kay.

Nat leaned into the table, placing her elbows on the napkins and replied, "Nope, missy over here wont decided yet."

I looked at Nat and leaned into my chair, crossed my legs and with resignation said, "Fine! Edward. I choose team Edward. Happy?"

"As if! Jacob's better, your answer wasn't any different from last time. You always choose Edward. I don't know why it took you so long just to say it." Nat whined, boredom dripping from her voice.

"Oh geez, so why the question all over again? Can we do something else please? Let's go watch a movie or something." Kay said.

"Yeah, let's do that, let's go watch a movie." I said standing up with a huff. I took a long sip from my drink waiting for my friend to follow.

We left our seats and were on our way to the theater a couple blocks away.

"By the way Nat, I have chosen team Jacob before. I wouldn't mind having him around, with his breathtaking body, tan and warmth, his body, his lopsided smile. Did I mention his body?" I said all dreamy like.

"Sure, sure, Melanie you know you're just like Bella, right?" replied Nat.

Kay just rolled her eyes to our continued conversation. She knew I wasn't going to drop it there or that by some miracle I would agree with Nat. There was no way in hell I was going to stay quiet and just leave it at that, so she just doze off into her own world.

"Don't fucking compare me to her! Bella is a self centered, adrenaline driven drama queen!" I growled, trying to keep my voice low. "That bitch could have a neon light, telling her who her soul mate was and she'd still have trouble choosing!"

And to my surprise Nat only laughed. She fucking laughed!

"Oh wow, that was…powerful!" she said in hysteria, holding her stomach in support.

"Neon lights!" she repeated, holding her mid section, stopping to lean on the crossing light.

"True, so true!" she continued in between laughs. By this time I was laughing with her too. Our laughter pulled Kay from her mysterious world and she too had joined in.

"I love you more!" we both quoted at the same time, imitating Bella. We couldn't control ourselves. I literally felt that if I didn't get to a rest room in a couple of second, I was going to embarrass myself. So I started practicing my breathing.

The day went pretty much the same way, we continued to argue about teams, we watched "When in Rome", and we went shopping for a couple of hours, after all it was Saturday and we didn't have anything better to do.

As I was getting ready to go to bed, I thought about my favorite characters in the saga, and how incredible it would be to have the romance in the series. Then the movie I watched earlier came into mind and my thoughts merged into each other, my wishful thinking was making me want to go to Italy and ask the fountain of love for prince charming.

Yeah right! You swear that making a wish upon a star will bring you your own Edward! Dream on!

That was my inner voice; my conscience if you will. I hated my inner voice, so negative.

Just then I saw a shooting star and I wondered.

Maybe-just maybe.

And without a second to spare I wished for my very own Edward.But my inner self wouldn't go away without making a last remark.

Really Melanie! Your very own Edward! WOW! That's incredible! Your obsession over this has reached a new level. Congratulations!

I rolled my eyes and went to sleep, happily dreaming of my vampire.

The next day I woke feeling renewed. The first thing I remembered was the shooting star and my wish. I woke up expecting, for some reason, to be somewhere else. Where? I am not completely sure.

Isn't that a Lie Millie?

That ladies and gentlemen, was my conscience, again with the negativity. I think I might have a double identity disorder or something; a suppressed personality lingering beneath the surface waiting for the perfect moment to make its appearance.

Whatever, you don't exist? I thought with a smile.

I quickly got out of bed, took a shower and changed. I ran down the stairs taking them two at a time, as best as I could actually, two at a time going down isn't very easy. I went into the kitchen to join my twenty-four year old cousin.

She's my "legal parent/guardian." My parents died when I was eight, and I was left to the care of my aunt and uncle. Unfortunately they divorced a couple years later. My cousin was sevent-teen during the divorce, I was ten. I was then put under the care of my aunt, my mom's in law, not my blood relative. Which made it a bit awkward at times, she didn't have any obligations towards me, but she felt my uncle wasn't suitable to raise children while he went around sleeping with countless whores, or so she said.

My cousin then went off to be a doctor. She attended UCLA and graduated last year. She graduated high school with her AA already so it gave her a 2 year advantage. That and she was always taking extra classes, so she finished a year early with a job waiting for her upon graduation. Her determination and capability to push herself to those extreme appealed to several employers.

I bet your wondering how I ended up being under her custody. Well it's simple, her mom got married about a year ago a couple of month before her graduation. Needless to say, I was now expected to move in with a woman who wasn't really my aunt and a man that was trying too hard to make me like him. I was dreading that day. I even proposed that I move out on my own. Well that got a laugh out of them.

"You're too young!" she said

"You don't have a job!" he said

"I can get one!" I said.

She said, he said, it went back and forth all evening, I argued but to no avail. But my awesome cousin came to my rescue. Julie said she would take care of me. I was six-teen and wouldn't need much looking after anyways. She gave my aunt the best speech ever; something about a stable job and a responsible girl for a six-teen year old. Now I'm seven-teen and living with my cousin in a two bedroom, one bath house, not that bad, small, but I'm not complaining.

"Hey Julie didn't expect to see you here today." I said as I entered the kitchen and saw her having breakfast.

"I didn't expect to be here but they gave me the day off. Want to do something later? How 'bout shopping? I need some clothes" she said excitedly.

"Sure" I said, it'll be fun to spend the day with her.

Sunday came and went and summer vacations were over. It was time for school again.

I woke up early Monday morning to catch a ride from Julie. It was the only day she could actually drop me off. This day was no different from Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thursday came around and needless to say, I had to do the whole wake up, get dressed, go to school, "study", go home, etc. It wasn't until dinner that the day was actually any different from the rest of the week.

"So, how was school?" she asked over a slice of pizza. Talk about good eating habits for a doctor.

"Umm, good I guess. Same thing like every other day. How 'bout you, how was work?" it was weird trying to make small talk. Julie and I never had trouble talking. We always talked about everything and anything- so this gave me a bad feeling.

"Very good actually. I got promoted" she said, lacking the amount of enthusiasm I would expect for a promotion.

"But that's great news!" I exclaimed, feeling a bit relived, "aren't you excited?"

"I am. They offered me a furnished house and a new car, plus a raise. I'm ecstatic actually."

"You don't sound it. Seems to me like you're in shock!" I replied nervously. Stupid butterflies wouldn't go away.

She got promoted with amenities. Excellent!

"They have a condition," she whispered slowly, lowering her head and keeping her eyes on anything else but me. I almost didn't hear her. But I did, barely, but I did. And along with it came a sinking feeling that made my butterflies turn into stinging bumble bee's with no way out.

"What condition?" I forced myself to ask. I almost didn't want to hear her answer. I already knew. But hearing it out loud would confirm it. I started to feel the stinging of the bee's growing into a black hole in my stomach.

"They are transferring me to another hospital," she whispered, taking a deep breath and pausing, "We need to move." Her answer barely registered. I heard transferred and that's all I needed.

I can't move! Start over. My friends! My life!

"Did you hear me Melanie?" her voice came through my thoughts. "Melanie?"

"What? Oh…yes…. I heard you. We need to move. Where to? Anaheim? Long Beach? Riverside?" I asked sounding a little desperate towards the end.

"No. Washington. The state of Washington." She said.

I knew she was feeling really bad. She was always considerate of others feelings and she knew that moving that far was going to affect me.

"But… But…why so far? They could transfer you to Anaheim or Bakersfield for all I care! I could drive to school from there! At lease my last year. You know how much I have here don't you?" I said, my voice cracking slightly.

My eyes were burning. I didn't want to cry, I needed to get rid of that stupid ball in the middle of my throat that wasn't letting me breathe. The bees were still bumbling and I felt the tears start falling. I couldn't help it. But I wasn't going to start sobbing. I turned around. I didn't want her to see me. I didn't want her to feel bad.

"I'm sorry, Millie. I tried! Trust me. But they need to replace a doctor over there and I'm there first option. Please understand. This is a great opportunity for me, for us! I could give you more! Besides you still have two years left of school." she said pleadingly. I could hear the pain in her voice. I knew what I was doing. I was being a selfish bitch.

"You shouldn't have to give me anything Julie. I'm sorry. I do understand, believe me. It's just that I've known those girls since pre-k. They've been there all the way. My parent, your parents, Alex." I said with tears flowing freely down my cheeks.

"I know they have and because you have such a strong friendship with them I'm sure you'll find a way to keep it strong. No matter the distance!" Her pep talk wasn't that comforting but I didn't have much of choice. I needed to be realistic; I'm a seven-teen year old who has never held a job. I couldn't stay here by myself.

My alternative-take them with me.