STARTING OVER

By Wynter C

Author's Notes:

Disclaimer: All characters associated with Twilight belong to Stephanie Myer. No copyright infringement is intended at any time.

Note: This takes story takes place twenty years after Edward leaves Bella in New Moon. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 1

My Life

JWPOV

"Will you get your face out of the book long enough to listen to me! I have a dilemma here, and you don't seem to care!" Mackenzie shot a hurt look my way.

"I'm sorry. Forgive me, but this book has to be read by next month for my English class." I marked my spot in the book, closed it and focused on Mackenzie. "You have my undivided attention."

"Like you haven't read Ivanhoe more than a dozen times. At least once this summer." Mackenzie shook her black curls and rolled her green eyes. It was true. I had read Ivanhoe over the summer and at least once every other year before that. I was a book worm, but what did anyone expect. My father taught English Literature and mom owned a bookstore. "Anyway, like I was saying obviously on deaf ears, I don't know whether or not I should ask Tyson to Homecoming or drop subtle hints and wait for him to ask me. What do you think?"

I stared blankly at my friend. Why is she asking me? I have the least experience with boys. If I didn't provided some type of answer, Mackenzie wouldn't speak to me for the rest of the week. She would go on and on about how she wished she had a friend that would be there in her time of need. Problem with Mackenzie, it was always her time of need. "I think you need to at least wait a week or two and see if he ask you. You can drop hints, but don't over do it. If he doesn't ask you in two weeks, you ask him."

"What if he ask someone else in those two long weeks I'm waiting on him? What then?" Mackenzie jumped up off the bench and grabbed her book bag. "Jane Watson, you can be no help at all some times. I swear, I don't know why I put up with your ridiculous advise. I guess I will have to do it by myself as always."

I sat there and watched her storm off. Looking at my watch, I figured I may as well head on to class. I picked up by book bag and headed off to my locker. I felt more comfortable now that I had been at North Pole High for two years. Me and my family had moved here in the middle of my Freshman year. It took some getting use to. Not only weather wise, but population wise. In Jacksonville, Florida, my high school was well over 5,000. Here, the school had only about 1,000 students. Didn't make my life any easier. I was still an outcast and clicks was that much more obvious and hard to fit into. I had been lucky to get Mackenzie as a science partner. She was fairly new to the school at the time and welcomed me as her new friend. I wouldn't call us best friends, just friends. I don't have a best friend per-say. I'm pretty much a loner. Some people consider me stuck-up, but I'm far from it.

"I don't know why all these new people keep coming here." I stood at my locker getting the books for the first two periods, when I overheard a couple of the cheerleaders talking. There wasn't a lot of traffic in the hallway, so ease dropping was easy. "Why would anyone want to move here? I am so ready to graduate and leave."

"Yeah, me too. I think there are like a total of five kids in that family. Have they ever heard of birth control or something."

"Well, from what I could hear from the some of the faculty, they are adopted. This doctor and his wife took them in and they aren't all related. They are suppose to be well off."

"I don't care if they are billionaires and kin to the President, I don't like new…" The hallway was getting more crowded now and I couldn't hear the rest of the conversation. Apparently, these poor kids were going to have their work cut out for them if they expected to join the cheerleading squad or anything else for that mater.

I walked on to my first class, Geometry. I hate math! I'm glad I have it first period to get it out of the way. Only thing I hate worse than it is Physical Education but thank God I have finished my requirements already. I'm pretty much a klutz. Dad says I inherited it from mom. Everything that is wrong with me he says I inherited from mom. The hospital is on speed dial at the house. I was overly glad when the bell rang releasing me from charts, graphs and pies, and walked to my next class, History.

I went in and took my usual seat near the back of the class, taking out my laptop to take notes on. I wasn't paying much attention, then I heard the chair next to me slide across the floor. I looked over and stared. She was the most perfect person I had ever seen. She was very tiny, short brown hair, porcelain skin and wearing the most gorgeous outfit. I didn't realize I was gapping until I noticed her topaz eyes looking at me and a startled expression on her face. I could feel my face blush and directed my attention back to my laptop.

"Alright kids, lets settle down." Mr. Knowles waived his arms up and down motioning for everyone to take their seats. "Before I start, lets make our new student feel welcomed. Now…"

"Freak." I heard someone close by mumble and then a couple of giggles followed.

"I guess we are suppose to be impressed because the newbie is wearing some fancy clothes. NOT!" and that was followed by more giggles. Mr. Knowles was lost in his speech about World War I and was oblivious as to what was going on in the back of the classroom.

I glanced over and saw that she just sat there with a light smile on her face, keeping her eyes on the teacher. "Hi." I couldn't let her think that everyone was terrible. "I'm Jane. Jane Watson. Welcome to North Pole High."

She looked at me and smiled a little wider. "Hi, Jane." Her voice was like none I had ever heard before. It was so lovely and sweet that it could make you feel happy just listening to her. "My name is Alice. Alice Cullen. Thank you for welcoming me, that means a lot."

When the bell rang, I looked over at Alice. "You want to hang out with me and my friend for break?"

She hesitated as she got up, then flashed me a smile. "Thank you, but I think I will look for my brothers and sister."

"Oh. Okay, um, maybe I'll see you in another class." I smiled at her and she gave me a curious look before skipping off. She had said brothers in plural form and sister in singular. I heard earlier that there were five kids. Alice and her sister, that meant three brothers. I walked to my locker and grabbed what I needed for 3rd, 4th and 5th period. I heard footsteps running up behind me and turned a little to quick. I wasn't paying attention and my head slammed into my locker door.

"Great day, Jane! Are you trying to knock yourself out?" Mackenzie shook her head, again obviously disgusted in me. "Have you seen any of the new kids?" Mackenzie's green eyes were huge.

"I met one, Alice. She's small and dark haired." I turned back to my locker to finish gathering my things.

"Oh My God! I had math class with one of the guys and he is gorgeous. It is like looking at a sculpture of Apollo. I think I will forget about Tyson and go after him."

I closed my locker and started walking with Mackenzie who had stars in her eyes. "Was everyone nice to him? They were very rude to Alice."

"They didn't say anything to him. I think all the guys were jealous and the girls couldn't say anything. I'm telling you, at lunch I will point him out, but he wont be hard to miss. Holy cow, I think I'm in love." Poor Tyson. I hope Mackenzie won't make a fool of herself in front of him. Tyson was a done deal for her. This Apollo sounded like a heart break waiting to happen.

I made it through my next three classes, then I was off to lunch. This was my first year eating with Seniors. The Freshman and Sophomores eat together and the Juniors and Seniors eat together. I went through the line and picked up my usual; peanut butter sandwich, apple and milk.

I caught a glimpse of Mackenzie waiving me over to her and started that way. I saw Alice sitting over in a corner with a blonde guy and a huge brunette guy. Were those her brothers? They had the same pale skin and both were just as breath taking as she was. I thought the rumor was that they weren't all kin. I didn't realize I had stopped in the middle of the cafeteria and was staring at them. It wasn't until someone bumped me and I lost grip of my tray. The loud clatter was heard all over the room and my face felt on fire. I hurried and knelt picking up the mess.

"Way to go, nerd." I heard someone yell across the room and then there was laughing. I reached to pick up the carton of milk but a pale, tiny hand beat me to it.

"Let me help." I looked up and saw Alice kneeling across from me helping pick my lunch up off the floor.

"You don't have to. I'm such a klutz, all the time." I stood and smiled at her. "Thank you."

"Not a problem. You want me to get you something else?"

It took me a while to understand what she meant. Of course I couldn't eat my food after it had fallen to the floor. "Oh, no. I'm okay. I wasn't all that hungry to begin with."

"You can have mine, I haven't touched it." She grabbed my sleeve to pull me towards her table. I glanced over towards Mackenzie to get some help, but she was lost looking towards the door. As I approached the table, there was a drop dead gorgeous blond female that had sat down next to the huge guy. She was glaring at me with the same topaz colored eyes that Alice had. I looked at the guys and they all had the same eye color. "Not all kin" came back to mind. They had to be all be related somehow. You don't see those eyes just anywhere.

"Alice, what are you doing?" the blond asked through clinched teeth.

"This is my new friend, Jane Watson. She dropped her food and I offered to give her mine so she doesn't go hungry." Alice gave a tight smile back.

"Well, give her your food, but she can't sit here. There is only room for one more and our brother will be joining us very shortly." When she directed her eyes towards me, there was no friendliness to her voice. "Please, take it and leave."

"Now just a minute Rosa…" but I didn't let Alice finish.

"Thanks Alice, but really, I'm not hungry at all. I'll see ya 'round." I turned and walked as fast as I could towards the exit. I didn't want to be around, or the object, of a family argument. I didn't bother to turn back when I heard one of the guys say, "Think he will notice the scent?"

After Latin II, I was starving. My stomach was growling so bad, I couldn't think. I wish I would have ignored the lethal glares and taken Alice's lunch. She looked clean enough and it had appeared untouched. I assumed that her sister had been picked on enough today, that she wasn't going to take it anymore and thought that I was one of the bad guys. Why else would she have such animosity in her eyes. I stopped by one of the snack machines to grab a pack of crackers to keep me from feeling faint. Of course, I spilt my change all over the floor. I ran hoping I wasn't going to be late for science class. Bad mistake. I fell at least once and stumbled twice. I was late anyway. I walked in the room and tried to sneak pass Mrs. Sims.

"Nice of you to join us today Ms. Watson. You will still be marked as absent."

"Yes ma'am." I kept my eyes on the floor and walked to my seat hearing snickering as I passed. I sat down and took out my laptop. This was turning out to be a terrible day. I heard some movement behind me and turned to see who had taken the vacant chair.

I froze.

His other brothers and sisters didn't hold a candle to him. It was like looking at the perfect example of how man was suppose to look, straight from God's hands to Earth. He was too beautiful to be human.

The only problem was, his eyes. They didn't sparkle like the others. They looked haunted and full of misery. But everything else was perfect: bronze hair, porcelain skin, well defined jaw line, perfect lips…

I just continued to stare. This had to be the one that Mackenzie was talking about. Apollo. I couldn't remember if she had told me his real name.

"Ms. Watson! Would you and Mr. Cullen care to share your conversation with the whole class?" I hadn't noticed that Mrs. Sims had stopped lecturing. I hadn't observed all the eyes that were now looking at me and this magnificent being.

"Um…" If I would have been able to crawl under my desk and slip out through a rabbit hole, I would have loved that. I was so embarrassed. I quickly turned around, but Mrs. Sims wanted to torture me some more.

"Ms. Watson. I wonder what your father will say when I tell him about your disruptions today? You interrupted me by being late, you distract other students by talking in my class.

I will not cry, I will not get angry, I will not…

"Please, Mrs. Sims, it was my fault." When he spoke I thought I was going to pass out. That voice. It was even more compelling than Alice's had been. I just stared at my computer, wide eyed and open mouthed. "She turned to welcome me to North Pole High and, well, I couldn't stop talking. I apologize for being so rude."

Mrs. Sims stood there. It was a moment before she answered and she sounded like a different person. "That's quite alright. We want your first day at our school to be as pleasant and opening as possible. That was very kind of Ms. Watson and I'm sorry for being so abrasive." She turned around and continued her lecture.

When class was dismissed, I turned to thank my savior only to find that he had already left. I picked up my bag and walked back to my locker to grab my books for homework. I headed towards my old faithful Honda and saw in the corner of the parking lot a big, red Hummer. I wasn't the only one staring, but I was staring for a different reason. The Cullen's were gathered at the vehicle and seemed to be having a disagreement. I counted four and noticed that Apollo wasn't with them. I turned back towards the school to see if he was just late getting there, but there was no sign of him. I looked back towards the family feud and all but two had jumped inside the vehicle. I saw Alice looking at me with what appeared to be an apologetic smile before the blond guy whispered in her ear and helped her in the vehicle. They left like a bat out of hell. I was still standing outside my car wondering where the other wonderful brother could have gone and why was Alice looking at me like that. I jerked myself back to attention and hurried to pick up my little brother at North Pole Elementary.

He was waiting with a couple of his friends and ran to jump in the car. "Looks like your day was pretty good, huh?" I asked. He seemed to have adjusted to our change much better than I had. Funny, my parents had been more worried about him than me and I was the one barely keeping my head above water.

"Yeah, it was good. John invited me over to his house this weekend to go camping with his dad. Said mine can come too, but no girls!" I laughed and looked at his brown eyes, same as mine.

"No problem. I don't want to hang out with a bunch of stinking guys anyway." He told me about his exciting day on the way home and once there, he ran into the house to do his homework. I went ahead and walked in the kitchen to start supper before studying

After I had prepared ham & cheese casserole, I headed up to my room to work on my homework. Austen was finished with his and playing some type of cosmic-shoot-em-up game online with his friends. I settled down and started with my least favorite subject, math. By the time I had finished beating my head against the wall, breaking at least five pencils, wadding up at least seventeen pieces of paper and busting some blood vessels in my brain, I had completed my math assignment and mom was home.

I ran and gave her a hug. "How was work?"

"Fine. Austen got his homework?" she asked kicking off her shoes.

"Yeah, he's playing a game with some friends. I'm going to set the table, suppers almost ready."

"Thank you, honey." She hugged me again. "I don't know what I would do without you."

I was able to set the table and make homemade hash browns by the time my father walked through the door. I stood in the kitchen and watched my parents. In a world where divorce was growing rapidly, it gave me a sense of security to see them still happy with each other. He always looked at her like it was the first time he ever really saw her and she in return did her best to make him happy. However, it hadn't always been like this. Life was very difficult when I was a small child. My father was still going to college to get his degree and I remember the tension that was between them sometimes. For some reason, out the blue, my mother would hear something or see something that would send her hyperventilating and sobbing uncontrollably. My father would just hold her and let it pass. She would apologize and say it wouldn't happen again, but it always did. It stopped all of the sudden, six years later, when she was pregnant with Austen. She had come to some kind of peace within herself. It was amazing to watch her transform. I wish I could be as strong a woman as she is. I hope that maybe one day she will explain to me and open up about what had happened so many years ago.

She turned and saw me watching her. "Are you okay Jane?" her brown eyes looking concerned back at mine.

"I'm fine. Suppers ready."

We all sat down as a family, as we always had. Austen talked about his day at school and asked dad if he wanted to go with him over to John's for the campout. Of course, dad said he would have to talk to John's parents before promising anything.

"Jane, how was your day at school?"

"Fine. There is a new family in town. They seem pretty nice."

"Well, why don't you invite them over sometime. You know how hard it was for you when we first came." mom said.

"I'll see." I knew Alice would probably accept, but the rest of the family was up for grabs except for the blond sister, that was a definite no.

Supper continued as normal. When it was finished, mom encouraged me to finish my homework and she would clean up. Dad went to work on his itinerary for tomorrow and Austen went to watch television. The rest of my homework was easy. I finished it quickly, got my shower and hoped in the bed with Ivanhoe.

"Jane! Telephone!" I looked over at the clock. Who in the world could be calling me this time of night? I ran down the stairs and took the receiver from mom's hand.

"Hello?"

"Did you get to see him? I saw him at lunch and then I went to look for you and you had left. Where did you go? Did you even eat?" Mackenzie was throwing questions at me so fast I was having trouble keeping up with which ones to answer.

"No, I didn't eat. You didn't see me drop my tray in front of the whole Junior and Senior class?" I saw mom give me a worried look and all I could do was shrug.

"I wasn't paying that much attention. I was busy looking for my future husband."

"Well, yes, I've seen him. He sits behind me in 7th period."

"GET OUT OF HERE!!!!"

"No, really he does. You're right. He is - dreamy." I couldn't help but smile. Hearing his voice speaking up for me and rescuing me from the evil teacher, dreamy. I looked over and mom was paying even more attention to me now. This time her look was curious instead of pity.

"Hands off! He is mine! I saw him first!" Mackenzie didn't sound like she was playing. I still wasn't sure about her moods.

"I wouldn't think of it. I hadn't planned on fighting you for him like he's a piece of meat. Can I admit that he is handsome?"

" 'Handsome' doesn't begin to do him justice. You can have one of his brothers. They look 'handsome'. I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to wear my low cut shirt and mini skirt." The line went dead. If I could find another friend, I would dump Mackenzie and never look back. The fact that she was my only friend was pathetic even for me. Maybe Alice could change that.

"Must be talking about the new guy at school. 'Dreamy', huh?" Mom was smiling at me as I hung up the phone. I hadn't really talked a lot about boys with her. There was never any to talk about.

"He's pretty cute. Mackenzie likes him a lot. He doesn't seem to be my type."

Mom had finished drying the towels and was leaning against the kitchen counter listening to me. She was beautiful. People compared me to her all the time, but the only resemblance that I could see were our brown eyes, fair skin and some of our habits. I wouldn't consider myself beautiful. "It's your Junior year, Jane, live a little. Trust me, it's okay to step out of the box every now and then. Some guys you think that may not be worth the chase could be the one you wish you'd caught."

"Okay, mom. I'm going to bed. See you in the morning." I kissed her goodnight and trotted back up the stairs