Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or any of the characters in Twilight.

Bella POV

"Mom! I can take care of myself. I don't need your input." I said, exasperated. "You still should have called." she said. "God Mom, you have no right to scold me, you are such a child." "Don't talk to your Mom like that," said Charlie. Mom looked at me in the review mirror and I glared back at her.

"WATCH OUT!" Charlie yelled. I turned, my eyes widened in horror. Mom screamed and looked up at the road, swerving to avoid the truck.

I woke up and the car was flipped upside down. The smell of blood and burning was strong. "Hang in there, just hang in there," the words echoed in a voice I didn't recognize. Then everything went black.

I woke up with a gasp. The accident had happen years ago, when I was ten. I remembered waking up in a hospital, alone and parentless. Kathleen had taken me in ever since. Kathleen was my mom's mom. I hadn't had that nightmare in a long time.

I groaned and kneaded the sides of my head, too much drinking again. My head pulsed at the sound of Kathleen yelling my name through the intercom.

"Isabella! Wake up, breakfast is ready." I wanted to cry and buried my face in the pillow, pulling the covers over my head to create a protective cocoon. I lay still for a couple seconds longer, knowing if I didn't get up soon, Kathleen would come up to see what was taking me so long. I got up and stretched, my body complained back. I was sore all over, I couldn't even remember what had happened last night.

The last thing I remember was Kathleen shoving another drink in my hand, I couldn't even remember how much I had had.

I closed the door behind me and winced, even though Kathleen always had all of the blinds drawn during the day, she still always had every light in the house, turned on 24/7 no matter what time it was.

My room was the only dark sanctuary in the whole house. I made my way carefully down the stairs, holding onto the banister for support. The carpet was soft under my feet, a small comfort to the noise to come, waiting for me in the breakfast nook. I let my eyes adjust painfully to all the lights.

"Nice of you to finally grace us with your appearance," said Kathleen dryly. It was always hard to be in her presence. She looked annoyed at my state of dress. A t-shirt and underwear. I had bought the t-shirt in secret. She obviously wasn't very impressed, "Where did you get that disgusting rag?" Heat flooded to my face.

Just standing next to her made me feel ugly and plain. She was radiant with long wavy blonde hair and blue child-like eyes framed with long lashes. Believe me, there was nothing childlike about her. She didn't look a day over thirty, yet she had to be around sixty. Of course I would never ask her age, unless I had a death wish.

Just the sound of her voice made me want to flee back to my room. But the us did not go by unnoticed. My eyes met with Kathleen's newest toy.

He had dark curly hair and was built like a bear. He was definitely Kathleen's type. His eyes raked over my body and I turned red. He looked like he liked what he saw which seemed impossible since Kathleen was in the room.

If I had known that Kathleen had had a man over I would have changed. His eye rape had not gone unnoticed by Kathleen and she frowned slightly.

"Emmett, want some breakfast? I know you need to regain you're strength for round two." I felt disgusted, I really didn't need to know that. He tore his eyes away from my body and back to Kathleen. "Sure baby," he growled. I felt sick to my stomach. "You know what? I don't think I'm too hungry, I think I'll go upstairs."

"Isabella Marie Swan, don't be rude, you will sit and eat breakfast with us." Her tone were light but laced with warning. "Yes Kathleen," I murmured meekly, times like this I hated myself for cowering. I slid into the little booth across from Kathleen. Emmett slid in next to Kathleen.

I saw Emmett's hand snake down to Kathleen's thigh, stroking it lightly with his hand. He stared hard at me while Kathleen giggled girlishly. I quickly broke eye contact and went straight to shoveling breakfast into my mouth.

The last thing I wanted to see in the morning was watch my grandmother get felt up. He was watching me eat intently and it was beginning to make me nervous, he was really starting to creep me out and Kathleen was close to purring.

Finally emptying my plate, I waited silently until I had Kathleen's attention. "May I be excused?" I asked quietly. "Yes, you may," She said, flicking her wrist dismissively, she turned her attention back to Emmett, I was relieved to go back to my room.

I nearly ran up to my room to get away from Kathleen's giggles that were coming from downstairs.

I shut the door and closed my eyes tightly, then I slid down the door.

I was glad to be back to my room. It was nice and dark and quiet.

I had all of the blinds pulled. I sighed and threw myself back onto the bed.

I bounced a little before my phone chirped and danced around, vibrating. I snatched my phone from my nightstand. It was a text from Dina.

She wanted to know if I wanted to come over and help her plan for the party. Anything to get away from here, I texted back. I quickly changed then went to the bathroom to assess the damage done from last night. I nearly shrieked at my reflecting, I looked like hell. There were bags under my eyes and I looked haggard.

I ran I brush through my hair, then quickly rinsed my face. I rummaged through my drawers to select some makeup. I applied a little under eye concealer, lined my eyes with gold eyeliner, decided mascara seemed a little dangerous this morning and went instead with a quick sweep of light bronzer and applied lip gloss as a finishing touch. I decided it was the best I could do in five minutes today then rushed downstairs to get permission from Kathleen.

"Does it look like I care right now?" She asked looking annoyed. I completely ignored Emmett. His lips looked swollen and his eyes were wild. I recognized that look.

I backed away and took that as a yes to go out. I ran up the stairs to go grab my purse and walked through the living room to get to the foyer, shutting the door with a quiet click to avoid agitating Kathleen. I angled into the car and took a pair of oversized sunglasses from the visor and slid them on.

My eyes were still a little sensitive. I pulled my ipod out from my purse and let the music relax me as I took a few backroads. I bobbed my head in time with the music and stopped at the stop light and glancing at the other car next to me.

There were some guys in a Jeep that waggled their tongues suggestively at me and made catcalls. I sneered back at them and one of them called out, "Hey baby, don't be like that." I accelerated just before the light turned green and zoomed away, clutching onto the steering wheel for dear life.

Sometimes I couldn't control my anger. I reminded myself to be more careful on the road, but soon the thought was forgotten.

Dina was waiting for me outside and she squealed and hugged me as soon as I came out. I laughed at her reaction. She never failed to surprise me. "Come on, come on, this party is going to be great!" Dina as officially turning 20, I was had just turned 18 a few months ago. She was talking a mile a minute as she pulled me into the apartment and slammed the door behind me.

Finally, satisfied with all of our plans, she put away the chart of gotten out to show me. I groaned and I knew what was coming next. "So, have you met anyone noteworthy recently?" She asked. Her eyes were glittering mischievously.

"No! The answer is no! Please, please tell me you didn't set me up with anyone yet." I begged her. "I could tell you no, but then I would be lying." she said with a laugh. "Dina," I whined. My phone chirped, you're late, the text read. It was from Kathleen. "Oh god, I have to go," I said. I quickly gave her a hug.

Then rushed to the door, relieved to at least have escaped her attempts to hook me up. "Don't think you're off the hook," She called after me as if reading my mind.

I would take care of it later but right now I had other things on my mind. I rushed home to grab my gym bag and rushed to the gym, my phone chimed, I read the caller ID, it said private, which meant it was Kathleen. "Hello?" "You are supposed to stick to the schedule." she hissed at me. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again," I said softly.

Playing the good Bella she wanted me to be. "You know where you should be" she hung up. Right. Kick-boxing. I beat him, like usual.

I sat, straddling him and cried out my victory. I was getting pretty good.

I have been kickboxing regularly since I was 16. I panted, trying to catch my breath. "You can beat me anytime," said Jacob, grabbing my waist. It looked like he was enjoying this a little too much.

I have always been a little attracted to him, but this was definitely not something I wanted to get into. I stood up quickly before the situation got anymore trickier.

He sighed and stood up, looking like he regretted coming onto me. We stood awkwardly before he said, "Right, now let's work at your hook punches. They suck." He said playfully. It sounded force.

"What are you talking about?" I squawked. "I'm better than you'll ever be." We exchanged more playful banter the rest of lesson while he helped me perfect my techniques.

For reasons that escaped me, Kathleen had me taking as many self defense classes as we could fit in my schedule.

She claimed it was in case I ever was put in a situation where there was no one around to help me, but I thought she was going a little overboard with a knife throwing class and making me go to the shooting range.

I mean, when was I going to need to ever throw a knife? I never felt very comfortable holding onto the cold metal of a gun, and I never got used to the loud bangs, even with the protective ear gear I wore.

Form fitting earplugs under oversized ear guards. I had to go to my next class now, which was salsa dancing. "We will be doing the Bachata today," "Which I'm sure you all know originated from the Dominican republic." said the teacher. She was a short, curvy Latino with full-sensuous lips. I wondered if she had gotten a collagen injection. Salsa was actually pretty relaxing and made me feel sexy. When I had first started a year ago, I had been pretty clumsy and offbeat, since then, my balance had improved majorly. Maybe Kathleen was actually onto something, though I would never actually admit that to her. I was a pretty fast learner, I knew all of the steps she had taught in a few minutes perfectly and moving in time with her, mirroring her perfectly, everyone else in to class stumbled into each other and watched enviously that I had gotten the steps so quickly.

The teacher looked pretty impressed too. I felt rejuvenated after the class but was really sweaty. She handed me a towel and I wiped off my forehead and neck area quickly. It was time for my last class for today. Judo. We had just finished the punching drills and stretches and he went down the line, we were in the order of status the green belt was at the beginning, then a girl with a brown belt, then me, at the black, I had finally reached the level I had wanted to be at, a black belt, and I was damn proud of it.

"Practice your rolls!" Gregory ordered. Gregory was a very tall man. He was dark skinned and Indian, with a sharp beak for a nose. His arms were incredibly hairy.

I placed my hands in front of me, tucked my chin in and flipped through the air. My hands touched the padded blue mat only for a few seconds before propelling myself into the air and rolled, making sure the mat only made contact with my back diagonally, then stood crouched in the ready position. I walked to the back of the line and watched the other two students in the class in front. We had a small, class, since the dojo was very small and intimate.

Then Gregory paired each of us up, I was paired with Cecelia, the girl with the brown belt, the green belt was paired with Gregory. We each did ten moves, then we rotated. Next I went up against the green belt. He flipped me over quickly, without warning, I rolled naturally into and went into the ready position. "Henry." Gregory scolded. "Sorry, I got a little too excited," said Henry, grinning. Gregory chuckled. The lesson came to an end and we all got to our knees in front of Gregory until he dismissed us.

We each bowed as we left the mats, it was a sign of respect that was required was stepping onto or off of the mats.

I slid into my flip-flops, this was the only time flip-flops were approved by Kathleen and went to head for the locker room to go shower. The hot water released all of the tension and I sighed in content. I was so tired. I would probably be sore tomorrow, but it was worth it for a good night of sleep. Little did I know that I wouldn't get to sleep tonight. I went out for lunch and sat in my favorite booth in a secluded corner of the restaurant, away from prying eyes.

When I got home, I collapsed in my bed, Kathleen was nowhere to be seen, Kathleen was basically nocturnal, she only went out at night, she slept during the day to avoid the sun, she said that sun aged the skin. Which meant she was either sleeping or probably somewhere in the house with Emmett. The thought disgusted me. I set the alarm to go off in a few hours so that I could take a short nap, then I closed me eyes to fall into sleepless dreams.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The noise was insistent in my ear. I groaned and threw my pillow at the alarm. It made contact and the alarm flew across the room and hit the wall with a crash.

The beeping wailed one last time then died. Great. Now I needed another alarm clock. I got up, my muscles were all sore already.

I walked into the closet and ran my hand along the many rows of dresses. Decisions, decisions, decisions. I picked out a black dress.

The front of the dress looked modest, the neckline was high, but when I turned around, the dress dipped low, all of my back was exposed, the back beginning right above my ass. The straps on the dress were so delicate, that you had to be staring hard to see them. They crisscrossed in the back. The dress ended at the middle of my thighs.

I went back to the closet to pick out heels.

I slid on strappy, the black heels and went to the bathroom to touch up my makeup, easily changing it to a night look by adding tons of mascara, blending the gold eye liner with a shimmery chocolate brown that made my eyes pop and adding a darker shade of lip-gloss.

I curled my hair then shook my head really hard to make it look tousled. A little dizzy, I hung onto the sink. The whole affect took thirty minutes. I applied some deodorant and I was ready to go. I sat on the couch with my legs crossed, waiting for Kathleen.

Emmett came in instead, leaning in the doorway. "Bella, you clean up nicely." he wolf-whistled and leered at me. "Maybe you should go check on Kathleen, and don't call me Bella, only my friends are allowed to," I snapped at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Kathleen. "Was that really necessary Isabella?" she said sharply. "Yes," I couldn't help myself. She growled at me.

"Apologize. Now." She said coldly. "I'm, I'm sorry." I said quickly, looking at the floor. I knew I was in the danger zone. "Look at Emmett and apologize, this time mean it," she demanded.

I pushed away my pride then looked at Emmett, "I'm sorry Emmett," that you're such a bastard. I added internally. "Apology excepted." he said smugly. "And…" Kathleen prodded. "And," I held my breath, knowing what she wanted me to say next. Kathleen waited impatiently.

"You can call me Bella." Emmett's smirk widened. That smug bastard. I really wanted to put my lessons to use and punch him in the face. Kathleen seemed to read my mind. "Isabella," she said in warning. I sighed in defeat.

"Let's go, we've wasted enough time already." Kathleen let Emmett drive her 'baby' which surprised me. I sat in the back, pouting. Finally we arrived and I launched myself out of the car before it came to a complete stop.

My heels made clicking noises as they clicked the pavement loudly, announcing my arrival. The bouncer let me in front of the line immediately. "Welcome back Isabella." He said with a genuinely warm smile. "Thanks Jess."

He unlatched the red velvet boundary rope and latched it behind me, separating me from the outside world.

Sorry, I don't have Microsoft on my laptop so that's the way the story is formatted. I know, annoying.