Chapter 1

Bella

How I hated this. The removal vans who came and took everything away to a new place, because my Mom 'didn't feel complete'. This is what she claimed every time we moved, I was beginning to wonder if she'd ever 'feel complete'. And as long as she didn't, we moved again, to a new town, sometimes only a few miles away, sometimes across to the other side of the country.
Every time we were about to move, my Mom would take the massive map she'd had ever since I could remember, and chose a town name that 'spoke to her' and we'd move there, no question. When I was a kid, I begged my Mom to let me chose, she never let me and in the end I learnt to just go along with it, that was the easiest way.

We had moved eighteen times now, the longest we'd ever stayed in one place so far was six months, the shortest was two weeks. That was thing, you never knew with my Mom, she could claim she loved a place one week then hate it the next. She had to 'get a feel' for a certain place then she decided whether to stay.

This process was worse for me when I was a kid, I registered for school, made friends, then we moved. I used to cry my eyes out each time, not wanting to leave my 'best friends'. I'd stay in touch with them for a bit then they'd conveniently 'forget' to write. As I got older, I found a solution to this problem. I didn't make friends anymore, I got to a school and just became somewhat invisible, it was easier than making friends then leaving them. By doing this, I remained clinical, objective, unattached to anyone, no one to miss me when Mom and I disappeared, and no one for me to miss. I never got tied down.

It was just Mom and me. My dad had died while my Mom was pregnant with me, since then, my mom had never stayed in one place for more than six months.

This time, the nineteenth time we'd moved, we were moving to Forks, Washington. The rainiest place in the continental US. Fabulous. Whenever we moved, I always hoped that my Mom had chosen somewhere sunny, I hated cold and rain, it never failed to get me down. The sun made me feel happy, safe.

You might ask how we had the money to move around so much, and the truth was, we didn't. Dad had left us a huge amount in his will, and it was running out, fast. Not that my Mom cared. I was the one who read the bank statement, the only thing that followed us each time we moved, I had tried to tell my mom that we didn't have the money to keep on like this, but she never listened, she just said "Bella, don't be silly, we'll be fine." So we kept moving, Mom didn't care about the consequences, she didn't care about how the constant moving affected me. I'd never get into a college now, my school work was uprooted every time we moved.

But still, as soon as I was eighteen, I was getting a permanent place of my own, far away from my Mom and her stupid moving complex. I had been saving up for my own place since I was thirteen years old, I'd realized at the time, that if I didn't, I'd be moving around with my Mom for the rest of my life. That would not happen. It was enough to make anyone save every penny they had. I got temporary jobs in every town we went to, putting every penny I earned into my bank account, ready and waiting for the day I turned eighteen. I had kept track of housing markets since I was thirteen too, just in case I suddenly realized I didn't have enough. There was only one place, I wanted to move to.

It was a small town outside Phoenix in Arizona, called Cave Creek, that was where I was going to buy my own place. The eleventh time we'd moved, we'd driven through that tiny town, and I'd thought it was the most beautiful place on earth. I'd live there for the rest of my life, I would never move, ever.

Anyway, that was the future, back to the present. It was my first day at Forks High, I had my schedule and was off to my first lesson which was English. I kept my head down as the teacher introduced me to the class. I had, over the years, developed a technique for starting in a new school, you keep your head down, answer the too-curious students with one syllable answers and wait till they become bored with you. It never failed.

I didn't make any eye contact with anyone as I walked to the seat the teacher had given me at the back. I was all too aware of the staring eyes on me, but that was another rule of starting in new school, you didn't acknowledge the starers, that made them think you wanted to talk to them.

The lesson past and I knew, from personal experience, that the end of the first lesson was the worst bit of the first day, once the teacher had called out to tidy up, the whole class wanted to talk to you, wanting to know where you came from, who were you, why did you move, the tedious and endless questions that they 'needed' to know' the answers to, I hated this bit, why couldn't they just leave me alone?

A baby-faced blonde boy was the first to talk to me. "Hey, I'm Mike, do want me to show you to your next class, Isabella?" He asked, using my full name which I hated, but that was what the teacher introduced me as, so that was how everyone in this class would know me.

"It's Bella, actually, and I'll be fine, thanks." I answered with a small amount of venom of my voice which he was oblivious to.

He smiled, "Bella, then. What's your next class?"

"Gym."

"I can show you there." He said. Did he not hear say I'd be fine?

"I think I can find it."

"Sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." I lifted my bag up as the bell rang and pushed my way to the door, before anyone else could start a conversation with me.

I walked unwillingly to the big corrugated iron-topped building that had to be the gym, I always hated gym, no matter what school I went to, I hated gym. Running around hurting myself was not my idea of fun.

More introductions at the start of the lesson and I had to borrow the school's smelly kit. I'd never had my own gym kit, there was no point, seeing as I'd be off to a new school with new kit faster than you could say athletics.

I endured the lesson, dressing quickly, glad to be out of there.

Forks High had an odd timetable where we had lunch after second period. The dinner hall was apparently just the normal school hall with tables and chairs spread out along the buffed wooden floor.

I got a cheese salad sandwich, and sat on an empty table, ignoring Mike when he shouted for me to sit on his table, even if I did want sit with someone, unbelievably, he would not be who I would chose to sit with.

I was lost in my thoughts, wondering how long we'd stay in this town, thinking about the last school I'd been in when a voice said, "Excuse me, this is our table." I looked up to see a stunning blonde girl, she looked like a supermodel. If I was bothered about how I looked, which I wasn't, my self-esteem would be in tatters just looking at her. She stood next to my seat expectantly.

"Sorry, I'll just move then." I muttered, picking my sandwich up from the table and bag from the back of the plastic seat.

A new voiced chimed, "No Rose, she can sit with us." A tiny, pixie-like girl sat down next to me. Her deep black hair was cropped short, sticking out around her elfin face, "Hi, I'm Alice! You must be the new girl. You can sit with us." She said as I stood up.

"No, it's okay. I'll sit over there..." I trailed off as I saw the hall was now full, no where to sit.

Alice smiled at me, "Really, sit here." She told me, and reluctant as I was, I had to sit here. This was not part of the plan.

"What's your name?" Alice asked, pulling a box of cold pasta out of her obviously designer bag.

"I'm Bella Swan." I took a bite out of my sandwich, somewhat awkwardly.

The gorgeous blonde girl sat across from us, filing her nails, at least she wasn't overly curious about me. She seemed to be taking the attitude I wished everyone would, indifferent, not interested, everything would be so much easier if everyone was like that.

"That's Rosalie, by the way." Alice told me, and the girl, Rosalie, didn't look up even when Alice said her name, "So, Bella, where did you move from?"

"Georgetown, Indiana." I told her, automatically, these were the questions you got everywhere.

She looked shocked, "That's a long way to travel, don't you think?"

I shrugged, "I've traveled furthur." I told her honestly. That was a comparatively short distance to travel to other journeys I had.

Two boys walked over to the table then. One was huge, a serious body-builder, with dark curls and blue eyes, the other a bit leaner, with honey-coloured hair and blue-grey eyes.
The big guy sat next to Rosalie and immediately kissed her, and the other sat next at Alice and looked into her eyes, but their moment still felt as though I was intruding on them by watching so I looked away.

"Who's this?" The big guy indicated to me once he was done with Rosalie.

"This is Bella Swan, she just moved here from Indiana." Alice announced, "Bella, this is Emmett," she pointed to the big guy, "And this is Jasper." She pointed to the blonde boy.

"Nice to meet you." Emmett grinned, shaking my hand so hard that I thought it might fall off in his grip.

"You too." I said.

This was going against the grain, I shouldn't be sitting here, I should be alone, how was I supposed to remain clinical if I was already on my way to making friends? I didn't want to hurt their feelings, but I didn't want the pain of leaving behind friends like I had in other towns.

"Where's Edward?" Alice asked, then shot me a look and explained, "My brother."

Emmett half-smiled,"Where do you think?"

Then the whole table said "With the Bitch Troll."

I saw Emmett smirk at my confused expression, "The Bitch Troll, otherwise known as Lauren Mallory, is Edward's girlfriend and as you've probably guessed, she is a prime Bitch Troll" He said this so matter-of-factly I had to laugh.

"Speak of the devil." Rosalie muttered, and I turned to where she was looking, only to see the the most handsome guy I'd ever seen. He had effortlessly sexy mussed bronze hair, bright green eyes that were dazzling even from this distance, the sculptured jawline you only saw on movie stars, perfect alabaster pale skin and a six pack emphasized by the snug white t shirt he wore. He had a face and body so perfect even Robert Pattinson paled in comparison. I couldn't help but stare as strolled towards us, smiling crookedly.

"Wow, I feel so honoured, the Edward Cullen has graced us commoners with his presence." Rosalie rolled her eyes.

"Shut it, Rose." His voice was like velvet and honey, "I'm not staying anyway. Alice have you got any money, I forgot mine." He asked her, with a angelic smile, she handed over some coins with a sigh, "Thank you!" He grinned then looked at me. Those eyes, they should have a government health warning, I thought

"Who's the girl?" He asked Alice, a bit rudely.

"This is Bella, Bella, this is my idiot brother, Edward."

He grinned directly at me, "Hey."

"Edward! Don't you have a Bitch Troll of a girlfriend to get back to?" Alice asked, indignantly. He rolled his shockingly green eyes then winked at me.

"See you around, Bella." He said softly before turning and sauntering off the way he came. My cheeks were flaming, my heart racing in my chest.

"Take no notice of my idiot brother, Bella." Alice sighed.

A little too late for that...

So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Ugly?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Bella