A/N: So, I started posting this story last year around this time before I took it down. I got too excited and started posting before I had the full plot and timeline figured out. I am currently working on edits and rewrites, and I am hoping that by posting this, it will help motivate me to finish them.

This story is basically completed. Like I said, I am working on edits. There are some chapters that I am working at the beginning that I am adding, so the updates toward the beginning with be slower than later on.

Also, my updates in general will be slower. I lost my grandfather on September 23, and my writing is the only thing keeping me sane. It is just a slower process right now.

I also have another story that I just started, Nowhere Land. It a lot heavier than this one, and a bit too much for me to work on at the moment. It hits a little too close to home, but it is there if you want to read the first two chapters.

This story will not be explicit, at least I don't think so. But, I am rating it M just in case.

P.S. This story started out as an original fiction with my own names in it, so things will be changed some (ie. birthdays etc.) If there is a name in there that doesn't make sense I apologize, and I would appreciate it if you let me know so I can fix it.

1

Bella

The day was hot, clothes sticking to you, sweat pouring down your face hot. Northern was an older high school, so it didn't have any air conditioning, which was killer when the heat settled in. The final bell had rung almost fifteen minutes ago at this point, and the hallways were deserted. The trashcans that the teachers had set out for students to throw their trash into were now overflowing; papers were now scattered across the floor of the hallway. Lockers were standing open, empty, their owners already vacated the area, ready to start their summer vacation. I slipped on one of the pieces of paper on my way over to the only other person here.

"I can't believe you're still here," I stopped at her locker, watching her finish pulling things out of her locker. "I cant believe you made me stay here."

"Why are you in such a big hurry, got a hot date or something?" she smirked at me, zipping up her backpack and slinging it over her shoulder.

"Why are you so funny, Alice Cullen?" I rolled my eyes, mocking annoyance.

"Well, Bella Swan, if you find me so annoying, why hang out with me?" Alice started walking backward toward the exit, "Oh, right, you think that my brother is cute."

"Alice!" I whisper-yelled even though no one was around. It hadn't been a secret between us that I had a crush on Alice's older brother Edward since I was twelve; I just didn't want anyone else to know, especially Edward, and in this town, if one person found out, he would by the end of the day. Things seemed to spread faster when they were embarrassing deep, dark secrets.

Alice let out a laugh, "What are you fussing for? No one is around to hear anything, so don't worry."

I rolled my eyes, "Can we just get out of here? I am so ready to start my vacation."

"Yeah, let's go. We should stop at the 7Eleven on the way home. I could really use a slurpee and a Seventeen." Alice had a sweet tooth, a candy bracelet was a permanent fixture on her left wrist at all times.

"Seventeen?" I asked her. Usually, Alice was strictly a Teen Beat reader.

"Yeah," she shrugged, "I want to reinvent myself."

"Reinvent yourself?" I eyed her warily, not sure what to make of what she had just told me. "How?"

"I don't know. That's why I need a Seventeen. I want boys to notice me, and that will tell me how to do it." she said the words so matter-of-factually, like they weren't foreign.

I just looked at her like she had grown two heads, "Um.. then it's me that needs it, because I've seen plenty of guys giving you attention." Alice was a pretty girl with long black hair, gray eyes, and tan skin, and despite her short stature, she looked like she could be a super model, and most of the male population noticed. She was the exact opposite of my frizzy brown hair that I kept in a ponytail at all times, brown eyes, and pale, freckled skin. Alice obviously didn't see herself clearly. But that's just it, no girl ever sees themselves for how they really were.

Alice pinched my arm, making me flinch and rub the now tender spot on my arm. "They do not."

"Yes, they do."

We made our way out of the door, going down the front steps of the school to the bike rack.

"Name one." she challenged as we both unlocked our bikes.

"Jasper Whitlock." I came back quickly. The guy couldn't keep his eyes off of her whenever she was in the room.

She made a face, clearly not happy with my choice. He wasn't the one that that she cared about noticing her. She wanted Peter Evans, the biggest player in the entire school. He'd "dated" more girls then could be counted, but Alice still pined after him like a lovesick puppy despite knowing her was like. I think that it went back to the game of truth or dare we played one night at her house when we were in sixth grade. Peter and Edward used to be friends, and one night we decided to play a game. All four of us were bored and there's an unwritten rule somewhere that says that you can't do to bed at a reasonable hour when staying at a friends house, and Edward dared Peter to kiss Alice, which he did because you can't back out of a dare. Ever since then she'd been in love with him.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked, starting to ride along side her to the 7Eleven that was about a mile from campus.

"He's just…..." Alice paused, looking for the right word, "a geek."

"Being in band does not make you a geek. He doesn't even wear glasses."

"I just… want a man to find me attractive."

I let out a snort, "None of the guys that we go to school with are men, not even the seniors."

Alice sighed, "Then what do you think makes a guy a man?"

"When they're in their twenties, have jobs, and have more than three facial hairs."

"Touche."

We rode the rest of the way to our destination in companionable silence, relishing in the fact that for the next three months, we were free of teachers and homework and people that thought they were better than everyone else.

The parking lot of the 7Eleven was mostly empty, only one car was in the lot, most likely belonging to the cashier on duty. We parked our bikes against the side of the red brick building beside the ice cooler. No words were spoken as we walked over to the machine that housed the ice cold, frothy goodness that we craved on a day as hot as this one. Both of us got the largest size available of the coca-cola flavor, piling it high.

I also went down the candy aisle, grabbing a bag of strawberry flavored Twizzlers on my way to the counter for the bored looking guy with long, tangled black hair to ring me up.

"Thank you," I said politely to him when he handed me the receipt, a grunt his only form of acknowledgment.

Alice was already outside waiting for me when I exited, reading the magazine that she had bought, heart shaped sunglasses over her eyes that she must have gotten from the rack while inside, steadily drinking from the straw between her lips.

"He was kind of rude," I leaned against the wall next to her, taking a drink from my own cup, feeling the cold liquid sliding down my throat, cooling me from the inside out.

"Mmm," was Alice's only reply, her straw never leaving her mouth as she continued reading the page she was on.

"Learning anything yet?" I peeked at the page the magazine was turned to, but the glare of the sun blinded me from the angle I was at, making me unable to read any of the words on the page.

"I'm only on the second page, so no, not yet anyway." she absently replied, her straw going back into her mouth.

I sighed, taking another sip of my drink, watching a car turn into the parking lot, taking the spot right in front of the door.

Peter Evans and his band of friends piled out of the car, walking right past us, talking and laughing amongst themselves. Alice's eyes were glued to the guy, admiring his tall frame, lean shoulders, and pale skin. His blonde hair was perfectly in place, his brown eyes covered by sunglasses, never giving her the time of day. Though, she didn't resemble the type of girl that he usually wen for. She didn't dress in tight clothing, or have big boobs, or wore makeup. The only thing cosmetic related that adorned her face was Lip Smackers vanilla lip balm. She was practically flat chested, not that that was a bad thing. Her clothing a modest pair of white shorts and hot pink t-shirt.

"Al," I waved my hand in front of her eyes as the guys disappeared inside the store, "you still there?"

"I'm still here," she gave me a non-convincing smile.

"We should go, my mom will be wondering where I am." I pushed off the wall, waiting for Alice to follow me.

"Yeah," Alice put her magazine in her bag, grabbing her bike. "Yeah, we should go."

We mounted our bikes, making a b-line for our neighborhood that was a few blocks away. The silence amongst us was different, not necessarily awkward, but not entirely comfortable. Things were changing, and I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. It was quiet and sneaky, but undoubtedly there.

I looked at Alice, worried by her silence. The look on my best friend's face, a friend that I'd had since I could walk, was one that was only seen on someone who had lost their best friend, or after one discovered that their dog ran away and was never coming back. I'd never seen her look so… sad before.

"What's wrong?" I asked warily, not sure if I wanted to know or not.

"Nothing." she replied, never taking her eyes from the road in front of her.

I sighed, not believing for one second that she was fine. "You know I don't believe you."

It was her turn to sigh. She stopped peddling and looked at me, "Nothing's wrong. let's just drop it, okay?"

"Okay." I nodded, "You still want me to come over tonight, right?" It had been a yearly tradition of ours that we would have a sleepover on the first night of summer, alternating between each others houses every year, as a celebration that we had gotten through another school year.

"Of course!" she said without a hint of hesitation, "Unless you don't want to."

"No, I want to!" my voice went up an octave. The last thing that I wanted was for her to think that I didn't want to come over.

Alice got an amused expression, "Right, you need to see how cute my brother has gotten since lunch." Her favorite thing to do was to tease me about my attraction to her brother.

"Yeah, that's right." my voice was laced with sarcasm, a bright red blush coming to my cheeks that had nothing to do with the heat of the afternoon.

"Huh," Alice rode into her driveway, coming to a stop so she could face me. "I'll see you at six?"

"Yeah, I'll see you then."

We waved in parting, me riding just a few houses down from Alice's to my own and pulled into the driveway, dismounting my bike and walking it to its place in the open garage. my mom left it open every day when she got home from work, always forgetting to make sure that it was closed behind her.

Shaking my head, I hit the button for the garage, walking through the door in the back that opened into the kitchen, finding my mom at the counter, cutting potatoes up for the roast that she was making that for dinner.

"Hi, sweetie, how was your last day?" Mom stopped what she was doing, rubbing her hands on the dishtowel that she kept draped over her shoulder whenever she was cooking. Her flowing brown hair was pulled back into a bun to help her cool off from the stuffiness of our home.

"It was good," I took the bag of Twizzlers out of my backpack, taking one out and plopping myself on the counter next to where my mother was working.

"Are you still going to Alice's tonight, or do I have to make sure to make enough for you tonight at dinner?" Mom smirked at me, already knowing the answer.

"No," I took a bite of the strawberry flavored licorice, "I am still going over there. Did you even have to ask?"

My mother put her finger against her chin, acting like she had to think about it before she answered. "I guess not."

"When is dad getting home?" I watched her put the potatoes in the pan that already held the roast, onions, and carrots.

"Not until late. He called a few minutes ago. Sorry, sweetie."

My dad was a Sheriff Deputy with the Calvert County Police Department, his hours varying from one week to the other. The worst were the weeks he had to work nights; the house was always eerily quiet when he wasn't here.

"It's okay. I was just hoping that I would get to see him before I left." Me and my father had a creepy close connection. We were each others favorite person.

"I know, sweetheart." Mom gently bumped my chin with her slightly damp hand.

"I'm going to go pack."

I hoped down from her perch on the counter, taking my bag of Twizzlers from the table and running up the stairs to my room.

My bedroom was like any other teenage girl's in the late nineties; there were posters of N'SYNC and Backstreet Boys plastered all over her pastel yellow walls. My twin bed, which was permanently unmade, sat against the far-right wall under a window, the white sheets and old family quilt, which had been sewn by my grandmother, were rumpled. A nightstand with a lamp and cassette player sat next to the bed, the drawer filled to the top with cassettes. The floor was covered with clothes, shoes, and socks- the room wasn't dirty, just slightly messy. A vanity was on the opposite wall, a mostly unused bottle of perfume that my mother had gotten me for Christmas and some Lip Smackers littered the surface. Hair scrunchies were a permanent fixture on my bed posts for easy access. The room screamed just what my world had been: simplistic. I still thought of myself as a kid with summers filled with worn out cutoffs, tank tops, and my blue one-piece. Nothing had yet shattered my world of innocence.

I put my backpack down on the floor of my open closet, replacing it with my duffel bag. I worked quickly, filling it to the top with things that I would need for the night's stay: a couple bottles of nail polish, some older issues of magazines, and her favorite cassettes (Alice didn't have many due to her lack of interest in music).

Alice's parents were the opposite of mine, they were very conservative and had strict rules regarding where their kids could go and with whom. They forced their kids to endure church every Sunday, giving them no choice in the matter. It killed them the day that they realized that their children really had no interest. Their home was picturesque, with white walls and beige and brown furniture. It seemed as if the Cullen's never had any problems. Maybe that was why Alice was getting restless, she was feeling suffocated with no way out but to make one.

"Bella, I am so happy to see you!" Mrs. Cullen greeted me when I knocked, giving me a 1950s housewife smile. "How do you feel now that school is finally over?"

If there was one thing that I had learned over the years it was that Mrs. Cullen really liked to talk. "Great. I'm just happy that I don't have to get up early." I replied with a smile.

Mrs. Cullen laughed, "You sound like Edward."

I tried to laugh back, but it got stuck in my throat when she mentioned Edward's name, my palms getting sweaty at the possibility that he was home. He was an enigma to me, which only strengthened his appeal.

"Where's Alice?" I asked, looking around for my escape from the small talk.

Taking the hint, she replied, "I had her take out the trash, she should be back in a minute if you want to go up to her room."

"Thank you."

I made my escape quickly up the stairs to Alice's room, happy that I didn't have to make idle chit chat anymore. Mrs. Cullen had always been kind to me and welcomed me into their home without reservation, but I wasn't comfortable around her and I was never able to put my finger on why. Maybe it was because I knew that Mrs. Cullen didn't approve of my parents not taking me to church, I will never be able to forget the look on the woman's face when I told her that I had never stepped foot into a church in my life, I was afraid that my best friend's mom was going to have a heart attack. Ever since, it always seemed that Mrs. Cullen was trying to save my soul, like that was always the hidden goal behind our talks.

Alice's room was much like mine with posters of all the boy bands that she was currently obsessing over. Her walls were light pink in color (something that she despised, but her parents wouldn't allow her to paint), she had two small closets on either side of a window seat, the bottom of which was filled with books, an antique gold metal rail bed sat proudly in the middle of the room, white, lacey coverings adorned the full-size bed. She had a vanity as well with perfumes and body splashes on it. The only real difference between the two rooms was that Alice's was perfectly organized, no clutter in sight. Most likely her mother's doing. No teenager was this clean.

I took a seat on the bed, plopping myself down on the bed, my head coming down hard on one of the pillows, a crinkling sound coming from beneath me.

"What the heck?" I sat up, lifting the pillow to investigate the source.

What was revealed to me was the latest copy of Cosmo, a female celebrity on the cover with blurbs surrounding her about how to have good sex and how to make your man worship you.

So, that's what she meant..., I thought as I continued to stare dumbly at the magazine, the type that sat water logged in my parent's bathroom from my mother reading them in bathtub, but was now under my best friends pillow. I felt even more uneasy by Alice's need to reinvent herself, obviously it involved something that I was too embarrassed to think about.

"Where is she?" Alice's voice came echoing from downstairs, bringing me out of my fog.

"She's in your room, sweetie!" Mrs. Cullen called back.

Quickly, while listening to Alice's pounding footsteps, I put the pillow back and sat on the edge of the bed, hoping to make it seem like I hadn't just seen something that I shouldn't have.

Alice appeared a moment later, breathing heavily from her short run up the stairs, "Hey." she smiled, sitting next to me, curling her legs beneath her. "Sorry about that. Apparently, the earth would've ended if the trash didn't go out tonight."

I waved my hand at her, "No big deal."

A while later we were listening to an older Backstreet Boys tape while Alice sat on the floor painting my toenails a bright red.

"I finished reading that copy of Seventeen." Alice announced out of the blue as she finished up my right foot and moving on to the left.

"That was fast," I commented, looking down at Alice, "You're really set on this, aren't you? Reinventing yourself."

Alice dipped the brush back in the polish, running it along the rim of the opening to get the extra off of the brush. "Don't you want to grow up and have a boyfriend?" she looked up at me.

I sighed, "Of course I do," my eyes drifted to the pillow covering the Cosmo. "I just don't want to grow up too fast is all."

Alice sighed, finishing up my left foot. "I'm not growing up too fast. I'm just taking charge of my life."

I was about to say something about finding the magazine under Alice's pillow, but before I could, the door opened quietly and Alice's mom stuck her head in.

"Pizza is here, girls." Mrs. Cullen spoke quietly.

Alice put the brush back into the bottle of polish, "We'll be right down, mom." she smiled at her mother who left without shutting the door, then turned to me. "You're so lucky that you're mom knocks."

We walked downstairs to the immaculately decorated dining room. The walls were painted a warm beige color (it was the only room, other than the bedrooms, that wasn't white). In the middle of the room was a dining table that could seat eight people, the wood was a dark oak finish with wing back chairs. A china closet sat on one side of the room, displaying antique dishes that had been passed down from generation to generation. On the other side sat a wooden, dark oak dresser that held all their place settings. There was a maroon colored runner along the top with candles sticks on either side of a decorative bowl of fruit. The real center piece of the room was the shimmering crystal chandelier, the lights shining through them, making colors bounce off the walls.

"Hi, Bella. Nice to see you." Mr. Cullen patted me on the shoulder, setting a plate in front of me where I had taken a seat next to Alice on the left side of the table. "How are you?"

"Good." I replied graciously.

Mr. Cullen was an easy person to like. He was tall, with graying dirty blonde hair, five o'clock shadow, and nice slacks, light blue shirt, and a navy-blue tie with strips that he had yet to take off. He was very charismatic, making it easy to see how he had become the number one salesman at the company he worked for, making employee of the month several times throughout the year and earning himself a nice bonus. He taught Sunday school every week to high school age kids and ran the church's talent shows and plays. Whenever they needed a volunteer, he was there along with his wife.

"How are your parents?" Mrs. Cullen asked me once they had started eating.

I nodded while I swallowed, "They're good. My dad's been working late so I think my mom's gets a little lonely sometimes."

Mrs. Cullen wiped her mouth, "Well, tell your mom that I said hi and that I would love to get together and have lunch sometime. It has been a long time since we sat down and talked." she finished with a smile.

"I will." I agreed. "She was saying the other day that you two had some catching up to do."

"Fantastic!" Mrs. Cullen went back to her meal with a soft smile on her face, pleased with the response that she and her old friend would be getting together for a good, long, overdue talk.

"Things are really coming together for this month's Coffee House." Mr. Cullen started. Coffee House was a talent show type thing that they're church put on every month or so. They would serve coffee while all the teens and kids involved with the youth group would perform. "All the kids are really talented." he took a sip of his drink. "You should come check it out," he spoke to me, "I think that you'd enjoy watching it."

"Dad!" Alice scolded. It made her uncomfortable when her parents thought of ways to try to weasel her nonreligious friend into church.

Mr. Cullen sighed, "I was just making a comment, Alice. She doesn't have to if she doesn't want to."

"Actually, it sounds kind of cool." I commented, trying to diffuse the situation before it got heated.

Alice gave me a look that said, 'what the heck'.

"It does," I shrugged.

The rest of dinner past by quietly, ending with Alice's parents clearing the dishes, and then the two adults called it an early night at nine o'clock, leaving the us alone until Edward got home from his job at one of the local grocery stores.

The two of us were sitting with a bowl of popcorn between us, the blanket that we had been curled up under covering our eyes as we watched Scream on one of the premium movie channels. When the front door opened, we both jumped and screamed, popcorn flying everywhere.

"Sorry," Edward said, closing the door behind him, looking at the TV to see what had gotten us so on edge. "Do mom and dad know that you are watching an R rated movie?"

"Do mom and dad know that you got off an hour before you said you did?" Alice came back at him with a smirk. "You're just lucky mom isn't here to smell the pot on you."

"What did you have for dinner?" he asked, ignoring her threat.

"Pizza. There is still some left in the fridge if you want it." Alice replied, eating a piece of the rogue popcorn that had ended up in her hair.

"He smokes pot?" I asked, popping a piece of popcorn into her mouth after he had left the room.

Alice nodded, playing with the candy bracelet and taking a bite. "Sometimes when he works late, but not often. One of his work buddies has a hook up." she knew that Edward liked to hang out after work with some of his co-workers and smoke to unwind, giving her the perfect ammunition if he crossed her. Their parents would have a field day sending him away to a Christian rehabilitation center for the summer to cure him of all the bad things the devil was making him do.

I nodded, taking in the new information about Edward that I hadn't known before, both of our attention going back to the movie, the blanket covering my eyes as ghost face jumped out of his hiding place to attack an unsuspecting victim.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and I hope to see you for the next one.