She could heard the voices of her parents from behind their closed door. Loud voices tense with anger and frustration. Soft murmurs of doubt and confusion. It would go on like that for hours on end. She knew her parents weren't happy...at least not together. She always tried to make it better by being a good daughter, doing what she was asked without argument. Things would be good for a time, but the arguments always started again eventually. She loved her parents, but they were a broken family.

"Bella?" she heard Reneé call. Bella Swan raised herself up from her bed where she had been lying and headed toward the sound of her mother's voice. She walked down the hallway and found that her parents had migrated to the dining room where they were sitting at the rarely used dinner table. What's the point of family dinners when no one really wants to be there?

"Yes?" Bella asked, stopping just inside the dining room warily.

"Sit down. We need to talk."

Bella's eyes flickered back and forth between her parents who were sitting in close proximity but couldn't seem farther away from each other. She pulled out the chair across from them and sat down, the chair wobbling slightly on an uneven leg.

"Your father and I have discussed some things," her mother started. Reneé was alway the spokesperson of the family. Extroverted and outspoken, it was perfect for her. "And have made some decisions that we need to tell you."

Decisions? Bella leaned back so the uneven chair leg hit the floor with a plunk. Like a divorce? she wondered. "Like what?" She shifted her weight again. Plunk.

"Well, your father and I have decided that a new start might be good for us. For the family," she stopped.

"Meaning...?" Bella wanted her mother to just spit out what she wanted to say. Plunk.

"Meaning that," she took a breath,"We're moving to Forks."

Bella let the chair hit the floor with a sharper plunk that she thought voiced her shock very well.

"Forks?" she said in disbelief. "As in Forks, Washington? As in where Dad used to live?"

"Yes. That is precisely the place. Charlie got a call from an old friend there who said they have a job offering for police chief. We've decided that he should take it, and that it will be the best for the family. We need to get out of the city. Phoenix is just too big, and it can be dangerous at times, which isn't good for you..." Her mother went on but Bella stopped listening. She knew what Reneé was doing. She wasn't trying to convince Bella, she was trying to convince herself.

"When are we leaving?" Bella said, giving her attention back to her mother.

Reneé gave her an almost regretful look before answering, "At the end of the week."

"That soon? That's not enough time to get packed hardly, much less sale the house," Bella voiced her doubts.

"Well, we've decided not to sale the house. That way we'll still have a place to stay when we come to visit your cousins and everyone. You don't have to go to school the rest of the week so we can all get packed. Unless you want to go to school, of course," Reneé added with a raised eyebrow.

"No, that's fine with me," Bella wasn't a big fan of her school. The people were superficial and most were bleach blond with fake-n-bake tans. "What about your job, Mom?" Reneé was a lawyer at the local firm, but was very devoted to her job. She wasn't a big shot and didn't make killer amounts of money, but was very devoted to her job.

"Well, I don't have any cases right now, and clients can still correspond with me through fax and email. I can always fly back to the office here if I need to work a case. I will have plenty to do working from home. Don't worry. It will all work out." She smiled at Bella and the strain she had to put behind it made her mother look much older than she was.

So that was it. Her parents just up and decided they were going to move to Forks, probably the most boring place in the world. A new beginning...right.

"Well, I have some work to do, so, Bella, start packing as soon as possible, please," with that Reneé left the room.

Bella looked at her father, who had remained quiet during the whole "presentation". "Dad? Is this going to be ok? I mean, Forks?"

"Don't worry, Bells. I know it isn't your most favorite place in the world, and I know it isn't your mom's, but it's a good job for me. We're going to try to make it work," Charlie patted Bella's shoulder as he walked out of the room.

We're going to try to make it work...Bella knew what this move was. It wasn't about the new job or a safer place than the city. It was the last thing her parents could try to make their marriage work.

She went to her room and started packing.

She started unpacking. The week had past faster than Bella thought possible. It was now Sunday, and they were in Forks. All of the boxes with their belongings had been put in their designated rooms in the house. She had pulled back the yellowed lace curtains of her old room and looked out into the drizzling sky. She missed the sunshine already. It was the only thing she missed really. The people at school weren't exactly heartbroken she was leaving, and she couldn't hold it against them. She knew she wouldn't miss them. She didn't even say goodbye.

Walking back over to her suitcase that was perched on her bed, she surveyed the room. She couldn't remember the last time they had all been in this house to stay for an extended length of time. It had been Charlie's old house, inherited after his mother died. They would stay for short periods of time when they visited her and this was always Bella's room. Her grandmother had died when she was young and they hadn't been here much since. Charlie's friend Billy Black had taken care of the house until he ended up in a wheelchair, but luckily the house was in good condition.

Bella pulled out stacks of clothing and hung them in her closet. Next she moved to some boxes on the floor and began to stack her books on top of the shelf that hung over the desk. Sooner than she expected she had all of her things unpacked. She wasn't very materialistic, and didn't have excess amounts of knick knacks.She had just shoved her suitcase in the top of her closet when she heard Charlie knock on her opened door.

"How's it coming?" he asked conversationally.

"Good. I'm all done unpacking already, I think."

"Good, good," he ran his hand through his hair and looked around. He wanted to talk about something.

"What's up, Dad?" Bella asked, getting to the point.

"Well, since things are going pretty smoothly, I was wondering if you would be ready to go ahead and start school tomorrow?"

Tomorrow? Bella hadn't been expecting to start so soon. She tried to grab at anything to put it off for at least another day. Forks High School was tiny, and, having been informed that they don't get many new students, she was certain she was going to be stared at. "Uh, well, everything else still needs to be unpacked. Maybe I should wait on school, and help Mom get things settled."

"Oh, your mom already said she would handle everything. Things are going to be slow for her for a while until her office sends her some things in, so she said she would take care of everything during the day."

Dang. "Well," she scraped her mind for anything, and came up with, "I guess I can start tomorrow." Good job, Bella.

"Great. I've already called the school and your records have been sent. You shouldn't have any trouble," he said with a smile.

"Alright, then," Bella said, giving him a smile to satisfy him. They both stood there smiling in a now awkward silence. "Well, I'm gonna get my stuff ready for school tomorrow then."

"Yeah, yeah, I've got some stuff to, uh, take care of, uh, too." He tapped the wall before averting his eyes and heading back down the stairs.

"Great," Bella said aloud to herself. "First day of Forks High is less than 24 hours away." She flung herself back on her bed, grabbed her pillow and let out a frustrated, muffled yell into it.

a/n: hey everyone! thanks for reading. I know it's short, but writing the first chapter is always the hardest things for me in writing. I always just want to get it over with so I can get on with the story, but I also want to try and make it interesting. I hope you enjoyed and please review and let me know what you think. (for those of you reading my other story Mind Games, i'm going to try to update soon, but i'm having a little...transition problem, if you will.) love!