I do not own any characters, unless otherwise stated with a *. All rights belong on S. Meyer.

Chapter 1

I never really had any attachment to this town. Actually, I kind of hated it. I mean, it was always cold, always rainy, there were about 5 stores in total in the entire area, and my childhood, before I moved to my Mom's in Jacksonville when I was thirteen, was pretty tragic and lonely. I guess it didn't help that I was an introvert who never put any effort into making friends. Well, that, and I was kind of a chubby, nerdy, incredibly intelligent bookworm. Kids are cliquey, that will never change, and unfortunately - or fortunately, if you see it that way - chubby smart kids never make the 'popular' cut in middle school. The only friend I'd ever really had here lived in La Push, just outside of town. Jacob Black. He was a gangly Native American kid with long black hair, like it should be illegal for a male to have hair that long, the most dazzlingly white teeth I had ever seen on a person. I'm certain he was only friends with me because our dad's were best mates and he's probably get shit if he wasn't. Nevertheless, we had some pretty cool times together growing up and he was the closest thing I ever had to a best friend. The kids at elementary were always horrible to me. I always tried to stay out of the limelight and be invisible and not get any attention, but kids can sense fear. They're like horses, and no matter how much I tried, someone was always on my back. If I didn't speak to anyone, I was 'rude'. If I tried to speak to someone, I was a 'freak'. If I answered questions in class and got good grades, I was a 'nerd' and if I sat by myself, I was a 'loser'.

So if I hated it here so much, why was I moving back to my Dad's after three years, right in the middle of my junior year? My mom died. So Charlie decided that I couldn't possibly care for myself and finish at least the year, made me pack up my entire life and shipped me right out to dreary, dull Forks, forcing me to re-inhibit the bedroom I'd grown up in. Actually, that's a lie. She did die, I wouldn't lie about that, but the original reason I left was because she was diagnosed with a brain tumour when I was 12, and was only given a few years, if that to live, and I wanted to be near her to make up for all the years I had missed out on by living with my dad. Charlie didn't like the idea of me seeing my mom that way, but I didn't mind looking after her. Even in the very end, when she lost her sight and hearing and had to be completely cared for by a nurse and was given just days, I didn't mind being there for her. It gave me closure, and I'll always remember my mom for who she was; the fun, bubbly, innocent, loving, beautiful Renee. The move back to Forks was inevitable, I knew it all along, I just like to pretend that I was brought here against my own will.

"Hey, Bells. How was the flight?" Charlie, always the same. I swear he wore that same shirt the day he dropped me at the airport to fly to Jacksonville three years ago. Had he changed it at all in that time?

"Great, dad. Who doesn't love peanuts for lunch?"

He took my bags from me and we checked out of the airport, then found his car. "Your patrol car, really? You think we're gonna catch some perps on the way home?" I snorted when I saw the black and white police car.

"Hey, I find it comes in handy being a cop in peak hour traffic." Slamming the trunk shut, he replied smugly, or whatever you call it when Charlie is trying to be smug. "You wanna grab a bite from the diner on the way back?"

"You haven't got any food in the house." I said it more of a statement, than a question. Of course he didn't, Charlie didn't grocery shop. I smiled to myself at the thought of him walking around a grocery store looking puzzled, trying to choose between seven different cereals and trying to figure out the difference between the types of cheeses.

He smiled at my sheepishly. "You were always better at that than me."

I smiled back. I loved him. "Diner it is. I'll make sure to get onto the food thing tomorrow."

The diner had not changed one bit in the 1,143 days I had been gone. Same tables, same chairs, same menu, same prehistoric juke box in the corner and same staff. Charlie greeted the woman, Madge, behind the counter pouring coffee and we took the same seat that we had taken every time we ate here. "What'll it be?" He asked, as if there was a huge selection to choose from.

"Just a burger." It had started raining outside and I was kind of just in the mood to go home and lay don. That's the one thing I had missed about Forks, my bed.

Charlie called Madge over and ordered my burger, as well as his own. "Bella Swan," she gushed when she saw me. "How grown up you are!" I smiled at her politely and answered her questions about the weather in Jacksonville, how old I was now and how many boys I had to beat off with sticks now, because "you are oh-so pretty!" When she finally left to make our orders, Charlie mouthed a silent "sorry" and chuckled a little to himself. "Folks around here love a bit of news. You're the new thing in town again Bells, it's hot gossip. 'Course, doesn't help that you uh, have grown up a lot since everyone 'round here saw you last."

Awkward conversations are even more awkward with Charlie. "Uh, thanks, dad. Puberty, crazy stuff." I didn't think I had changed that much. Sure, that extra... 30 pounds had somehow disappeared as I grew taller, I no longer had pre-pubescent acne and I had contacts now instead of those hideous, thick-framed glasses, but how much could all that really change a person?

Charlie looked around stiffly, I could tell he was trying to think of some way to change the subject, but thankfully he didn't have to come up with much because a second later Billy Black wheeled himself into the diner, followed by a few young guys, maybe like 14 or 15 years old. "Charlie!" Billy greeted my dad, shaking off the rain water from outside onto the linoleum floor. "Saw the car out front and thought I'd catch you here before we headed back home."

"Hey, guys. You remember my daughter, Bella." Charlie didn't bother to stand up when he greeted them, he and Billy were best friends and formality didn't matter anymore, but I couldn't help but feel a little rude just sitting there when Billy had obviously taken the time to wheel his wheelchair through the rain and into the diner just to see us.

"Bella, how are you?" Billy pulled up closer to me and gave me a peck on the cheek. "Jake hasn't been able to stop talking about seeing you since the day he heard you were coming back to town." One of the guys behind him, the tallest one, groaned a little and kind of turned away. That couldn't be Jacob though, could it? The guy standing in front of us was about 6 feet tall, broad shouldered and had a tidy, cropped haircut. Not at all like the gangly boy I remembered playing video games with and building huts on the beach with from my childhood. Billy then leaned a little closer to my ear. "Such unfortunate circumstances, but your dad is so happy to have you back. He'd never admit it, but he's been going crazy without you. His cooking skills aren't much to comment on either." He laughed a raspy laugh and I saw Charlie blush a little.

I smiled again. "It's good to be back." The three boys behind Billy all chuckled a bit. This caught Billy's attention, and he started up again. "Oh, don't mind these guys. Quil and Embry are friends of Jake's, they're both as harmless as teddy bears. Of course you already know Jake." So the tall one was Jacob. He had changed, a lot. Maybe it was possible that I had changed too.

Madge interrupted then, bringing our burgers over and Billy took this as a cue to leave. He told Charlie to give him a call later about the football game tomorrow night, and told me not to be a stranger and to head over to La Push anytime. He turned his wheelchair around and Quil and Embry followed after him. Jacob hesitated a little, but followed them out. I could not get over how much he had changed.

Edwards POV

"Ahhh, Friday evening. Let's get on it, brothers." Emmett exclaimed happily as the three of us, myself, Emmett and Jasper, climbed into my Volvo. School had just got out and we had nothing but two days and three nights of freedom. Usually we would be spending the weekend with our significant others - and by that I mean Emmett would have been dragged off with Rosalie shopping somewhere, Jasper would be with Alice doing, well, nobody really knows what Alice and Jasper do, but I'm sure we don't want to know, and I would be with Candace*, or Delilah*, or Kelly*, doing whatever it is we do, and I know you don't want to know what that is - but this weekend, miraculously, we all had open schedules and we were ready for some bromance.

"I assume you have the beer, Em?" I joked, pulling out of the school carpark.

"Actually, this time I do." He replied, smiling wide. Emmett was never allowed to drink, Rosalie's orders. He was the strongest guy in school and he was totally and completely whipped. Jasper and I hooted.

"Wow, Em, how'd you manage that one?" Jasper asked him, while simultaneously writing a text message on his phone.

"Guys, I have known about Rose's trip away for weeks now. You know I had this all planned out." He gave us both a high five and carried on talking about his plans for his 'free weekend' with us. I loved Emmett, but sometimes it was just easier on my brain to block him out. Half way home, as we were driving past that hideous diner in the middle of town, I caught a glimpse of the Quileute clan out of the corner of my eye. Jacob Black and his friends. What were they doing here? They were from La Push. Then I saw Chief Swan's patrol car parked out front and figured that's why they were here, visiting him. I knew Jacob's dad was good friends with the Chief. That's probably why I hated Jacob and his posse so much. No matter what they did, they always had that security blanket. Us, on the other hand, well. One drunken fight in the street and we've got Swan on our backs for life.