Hey guys, new story. Like brain storm with the spark of inspiration I had five minutes ago then start writing the first chapter.

Here goes nothing I guess, this is called Second Chance, it's an Edward and Bella mainly, but there's a little bit of everybody. So on with it. Here we go again, thanks for clicking on this story and read on!

PLT!

~AliceSwift

Bella is five years old. Her parents are out and she is being watched by a babysitter.

...

"When will my mom be home?" I asked, Nicole was watching T.V. on the couch. Her feet were on the coffee table, there was popcorn covering every inch of the couch, and she was talking on our phone.

"Hang on a sec," she said into the speaker, then turned to me with a disgusted look on her face. "I don't know, like ten minutes?"

I was frustrated with her, why wouldn't she just put the phone down and listen to me for a minute? Luckily she was right, not much later my parents pulled up in the driveway.

"Hey, I'll call you back in a minute, I got to go." Nicole said before hanging up the phone and shoving the popcorn between the cushions, changing the channel to Disney and picking up a book to 'read'. Thirteen-year-olds.

I heard yelling as they opened the door.

"I just don't see why you're always like this." my mother said, throwing her coat on the tree and thrashing her purse on the coffee table.

"Because I-" my dad seemed to realize Nicole and he apologized. Handing her alot of money, she beamed and thanked him. Saying she would wait outside for her mom to come and get her, since she lived a few blocks away and it was dark. She made her way out of the room before my dad turned to my mom again.

"What's the big deal?" my mom yelled. My dad threw a string of bad words at my mom before spitting in her face. My mom was crying, I was still playing with my dolls but they didn't seem to notice me. My mom looked scared and I wanted to help her, but I was scared too. My dad looked agnry and I didn't like him when he was like that.

He screamed and threw the coffee table into the wall. He charged my mom and she backed up into the kitchen screaming at me. "Bella go upstairs and hide! Now! Run!"

I didn't wait for something bad to happen. I ran up the stairs, tripping a few times and blaming it all on my stupid feet for being a size to big for my ankles. I ran to my room and shut the door. I slid under my bed, where I would hide when I played hide-and-seek with my friend Emily, and curled up in a ball. I hugged my legs.

Why was my dad being like this? He was never like this before? What was happening? When would I be able to come out of my hiding place? When would things be okay again?

I was scared.

I heard many more things being crashed and thrashed around outside. My mom screamed the sickest sound I had ever heard.

"Put it down!" she yelled and I heard her run up the stairs. She opened my door and hid in the closet.

My dad came in only a few seconds after. Her sobs gave her hiding place away, I was going to win the game at least.

"Get out here!" he called her dirty names and threw her to the floor where I could see her. She looked at me and smiled, mouthing to me to close my eyes before blowing me a kiss. I gave her one back and closed my eyes. She screamed but the noise was cut short, I heard a dragging noise and then my door slam.

I counted to thirty before opening my eyes.

They were both gone.

I got up and looked out the window which had been open the whole time. I saw Nicole's mom pull up and she got in the car.

But I thought nothing of it.

That was then. When I was a little girl. When I still believe that leaves turning in the fall was fairy magic, and that princesses exsisted and got fairy tale endings. Complete with Prince Charmings, castles, white horses, and ball gowns. My world was a block wide. I had friends. I went to school. I was set-up for a pretty good, average, normal life. But that's all it was, a set-up. I had now put all the pieces of that night, which only came in lulls and lurches now, it was so long ago, together and knew what happened. Charlie had killed my mom, Renee.

I had never told anyone. No one else knew. The closet house was miles away so no one heard the noise. The only family we had was eachother. No one else on either side beside maybe a few distant cousins that had no clue I exsisted.

I was so little. Five years old and I had heard my mom be killed, I was just glad that I hadn't seen it. She was my best friend, and in my perspective still held that place in my heart. Charlie never sent me to school, he wouldn't make me go, and the first days after that night I hadn't desired to. When I did he wouldn't take me, I told him I could ride the bus, he wouldn't let me. Most likely afraid I would tell someone about what happened and that he would get in trouble.

Now, I didn't want to talk about it. I was almost okay. I was almost able to go through a day without thinking about it. I shouldn't be this torn up about it, and I know it sounds pathetic to say, but I had made progress since that night. Think about it. I had never got any comfort. I had never gotten any help or guidance about how to get over it. I had never had a woman to guide me through life, and Charlie sure as hell wasn't ready nor willing to do that for me. I didn't have any friends. I didn't have anything driving me so I would get out of bed everyday , excpet the fact that it was the same bed I had hidden under and that my mom had died by. What was the point of living?

Charlie.

He was, at the very end of the day, and as much as I hated admitting or accepting it, my dad. I had to take care of him and God knows he needed it. He proved that few months ago.

He came back to the house drunk and I was finishing up a test online; when I was about ten I was watching T.V. and heard about them. When Charlie recevied papers from the school district asking for a signature, he was so drunk that he signed them and had me send them back. I, luckily, had caught on very quickly and flew through my full years of grade school in months. I was about to endure my third year of high school.

He had burst through the front doors.

"Bella, help me you've got to help me hide." he slurred as he ran towards me. When he stumbled into the kitchen the gust of air that dragged behind him smelled of all sorts of alchol.

"Why? What happened? What's going on? Why are you out of breath?" he was huffing and puffing.

"The police are outside, in the driveway. They're chasing me."

"Why!?" Wasn't I supposed to be the one getting in trouble? I was the sixteen-year-old girl here. I was supposed to come home drunk and he was supposed to bail me out of trouble. Ground me and send me to my room. Sometimes I still wonder that if he hadn't killed my mom, if he had been the perfect dad or closer to perfect than what he was now at the least, what would I have been like. Would I have been that girl? The girl that did come home at two from a party drunk? Would I be closer to who I was now? More calm and sort of a loner by force than a partier? Would my life have been changed completely? Who would I be?

"Open the door now or else we'll have to bang it down."

"Help me Bella." he begged. I looked into his eyes and tried to find it in myself to do what he asked, but my eyes were hazed with hate for him.

The door came down and he slapped me before the police took him away. The sheriff got my name and asked if he had ever shown this type of aggression before.

"No," I shook my head. Lying. Charlie had set my mom's death up to look like someone else had killed her. Most likely ran her over with the car a few times before calling 911 and reporting the lie. He called the police, we had a small ceromony for her. A few of her friends came, but overall the service was just me and my dad. A very good actor he was. Gave a speech with tears and all, but it was an act. Now he was sitting in some cold nasty jail cell. I honestly hoped to never, ever have to see his ugly, twisted face again.

It turned out that he had stolen a numerous amount of drugs and had been high on something at the time. He was going to be in jail for at least five years.

Days later I had packed my bags. I was being sent to an orphanage in Seattle until I turned eighteen. Two years. Only two years I had to wait out until I could get out and maybe be normal, or my version of normal. The orphanage had sent two woman over to get me and take me back. It had been a long, pretty silent ride but it was better when I got there.

I had met wonderful girls who were my age, they welcomed me with open arms. They also let me know that they weren't going to judge me becuase of my dad. We were all in the same boat, I was just a few seats over from them. I didn't relate ot them well. While they had grown up together I had lived far away form them, though I somtimes envied them for all being so close.

I had met a beautiful young girl named Cynthia, she was only three and I had fallen in love with her on my first day. She asked me to play dolls with her and I couldn't turn down her big blue eyes or her angelic blonde curls. I looked after her like a big sister and she would always be my sister in my heart.

"So did you hear that there's someone coming in today?" Cynthia asked me as I folded clothes. I had been here for a few months now and was helping out with the younger kids. I closed the last drawer and went over to the pile of sheets that layed on a cot. I spread out the first one and tucked the corners in.

"Really? Do you know anything about her?" I asked. I loved her curiosity and her aspiration to learn.

"I heard that she was really rich and married to a doctor." she said, flopping onto a chair that sat in the corner.

"Well, that's great Cynthia, and how did you find that out?" I asked, eyeing her suspisiously. She was known to get in trouble too.

"I stood outside the door when they were talking about her coming. They said that she was coming in for a girl Bella, how great is that? What if she picks me? What if I go home with someone today?" I could almost hear her tiny heart thudding inside of her chest.

"I hope you do." I honestly did. It was easy for girls like Cynthia to go home to a normal family and live a happy life from there on, but not for people like me. A teenager who no longer has a round, child-like face, or sparkling charm. Big dreams and the aspiraton to follow them. A hope that everything is possible and seeing the best in everyone I meet. That had all been taken away from me before I was ready for it to be.

"You too." she smiled and hopped out her seat before walking out of the room.

Soon enough everyone was called down for lunch. Unlike the other girls who would sit at tables and gossip after lunch was done, I would help out in the kitchen. Clean things up and do the dishes, wash tables in the cafeteria and mop or sweep the floors.

"Thank you so much Bella, for helping out." Sherry, one of the lunch ladies, said, patting my back as I put one of the last plates away.

"No problem, don't mention it." I said turning to face her. She told me that I better get back with the other girls and I left the room. I was playing with Cynthia and her friends Lillie and Michelle when a very pretty woman walked into the room.

She took off her dark sunglasses and shook her hair out as she walked through the room observantly, heels clicking as she stalked across the hardwood floors of the orphanage. She glanced around as the head mistress spoke to her, though she didn't seem to be listening. She made eye contact with a few of the girls, which was rare, though I didn't know why, when people like her came in. She smiled and looked around a bit more before looking at me. She looked at me for a very long moment and my heart skipped a few beats. I saw something, in her eyes, something that worked through her eyes but was coming from her heart. I looked up, I had been looking down but pretended not to notice her gaze, which was on verge of being a stare. I smiled at her politely and she winked at me, her lips forming a gorgeous smile around her perfect white teeth.

"She's looking at you Bella," Cynthia told me and I looked back down at her.

"She's looked at you too, it could be any one of us." I told her. I looked out of the corner of my eye to make sure that she wasn't looking at me any more. She was over talking to Sylvia, an eight-year-old who had come here only a few days ago. She had been standing in a corner by herself so ovbiously she had stood out. The woman bent down to even out the difference in height, Sylvia smiled and laughed. The woman stood back up and left the room.

Hours later, some would say that these hours were the longest of their days here, we were waiting. These were the hours in which no one really wanted to talk, or play or do anything but wait. Almost all of the older girls sat and either read or slept. Waiting. The younger girls who weren't sleeping or alone were talking to Sylvia, who seemed to be exaggerating more than nessecary. Waiting.

I looked around the room. No one was even moving really. There were two girls looking at a magazine together, not speaking or making any eye contact, turning the pages mindlessly and aimlessly. Three different girls were sleeping, two were playing dolls about the previous events, I had a feeling that what happened today would live on in the walls of the orphanage for a long time to come.

I decided then that the room was too quiet. Not enough water in the air, not enough movement to look alive. I got up and walked out of the room to the bathroom. I closed the doors behind me.

I looked into the slightly cracked mirror that hung above a porcleine sink. I don't remember sweating but appearently I had been, the tear shaped drops that lined up across my forehead proved that. I turned the faucet on and the water that streamed down seemed too loud for comfort. I splashed some on my face anyway and turned it off. I got two paper towels and dried my face. I walked outside of the room to get a drink of water when someone said my name.

"Isabella," a voice said and I turned to see Ms. Andrews standing in the doorway that lead to the main room. Ms. Andrews was the head mistress, and I think part owner, of the orphanage.

"Yes?" I said, I was shocked she even knew my name, let alone as what most called me, Bella.

"Someone wants to see you." she smiled at me.

"Who?" I asked, I had no family except Charlie, no friends and no one who really knew me besides people here.

"Mrs. Cullen, you most likely saw her earlier today when she came in. She was looking into adopting you." she smiled again and I could feel my expression go from confused to shocked.

"Really? Um, okay where is she?" I said not sure what to do. I wasn't one of the girls who got called up to the main office alot. The office is where people go when they're about to leave. Normally there will be many girls who will go when someone comes in, ordinaryily it's pretty much always the same group of girls. I was never called up.

"Follow me." she said and vanished. I dashed out the door behind her. She walked quickly through the lobby and into her office, I had to step up my pace to keep up.

"Mrs. Cullen, this is Isabella Swan, the girl that you asked to see." the woman from earlier stood up in my presence, something no one had ever done before.

"Yes, this is her." I expected her to hold out her hand and shake mine, but instead she extended her arms to hug me.

"Now, let's sit down and talk shall we?" Ms. Andrews said. There were three chairs in the room, one belonged to Ms. Andrews the other already occupied by Mrs. Cullen, I took the seat next to her.

I couldn't listen to what was going on in the room around me. My mind was too cluttered, to busy, too occupied with thoughts I didn't know how to handle.

In about a half hour all the paperwork was done. All the forms were filled out. All the initials had been signed and I was on my way to pack my things.

"Bella where were you?" Cynthia asked me as I got my bags from underneath my cot.

"I'm leaving. She chose me Cynthia, me of all people." I whispered for Sylvia was standing a few spots over from us, most likely still hopefull.

"Bella I'm so happy for you!" she reached her tiny arms up and wrapped them around my neck to give me a hug.

"Thank you." I said and I hugged her tightly, pulling her into me knowing this might be the last time, in a long time, I would see her.

"So I guess this means that I won't see you anymore?" she sounded a bit sad, which is not what I wanted.

"No, Cynthia I promise that I will see you again. Maybe not soon, maybe not even this year, but I will. Do you understand me?" I said sternly, determined to make the promsie true.

"Yes." she shook her head and her curls went in different directions. I gave her another hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"I have to go. I'll see you." I said and put her down. I walked out the doors of the orphanage with her and we got in her car to drive home.

"Thank you for taking me in Mrs. Cullen." I said about five minutes into our car ride. "I can't begin to verbalize how thankful I am that you came in today." It was true, why would I lie about that? I was thankful that she had come in, otherwise I would have spent the next two years there. Not the worst, but in comparisson I would have chosen the situation I was in now hands down.

"Please, call me Esme, and don't mention it. When I first saw you Isabella I knew you were perfect."

I blushed. "You can call me Bella, everyone else does."

"Okay, Bella then." she gave my thigh a comforting pat and I knew from that point on we would get along great. "I think that I should probably warn you that we do have a rather large family." she sighed staring straight ahead into the rain.

"Really? Would you mind telling me about them?" I asked curious.

"Well, there's me and my husband Carlisle, he's a doctor down at the hospital. Then we have our two daughters, Alice and Rosalie. Alice is eighteen, and Rose is only two years older, twenty. Then our sons Emmett and Edward. Edward's seventeen, Emmett eighteen, he's adopted too so you shouldn't feel left out. Alice also has her husband, Jasper, living with us because they couldn't find anywhere else to stay. Don't ask me why they decided to get married so young, it's beyond me. But just the same they seem happy to be together." she looked over at me and smiled, watching as I took it all in.

For the first time,in a long time, I was going to have a real family. A real family who would love and care for me as much as my mom at one time had. This was huge for me, epic even.

"So Bella, what about you. You lived with your dad up until a few months ago from what Mrs. Andrews tells me."

I wanted to tell her. I did. I wanted to scream that he was only my father biologically and never emotionally. I wanted to tell her about how badly he treated me and how I had never truly experienced public school. Most of all I wanted to tell her about the better part of the tragety. I wanted to tell her about my mom and tell her how incredible she was and tell her how much she loved and tell her how much I loved her.

But I couldn't.

Because my mind went back to a place that it had been banned from by itself long ago. I saw my mother's face. She smiled at me and told me to close my eyes.

"Um, yeah I did." I shook my head slowly trying to gather my thoughts

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I would really love it if you would. I think that maybe it would help me understand you better. Help us be closer." she elbowed me and I smiled again. I hadn't realized the last time I smiled was so long ago. I didn't smile much when I lived at Charlie's, if I smiled in the past months it wasn't real, or because I was happy. The smile that spread across my face now was true. It felt awkward and might have looked the same, but I had better get used to it because I had a feeling that I would be doing alot more of that.

"Thank you." I said looking down at my hands which were in my lap. "Maybe later." I nodded, pretty sure that eventually I would be able to tell her.

"Another time then." she nodded and looked forward again. She pulled off the road and into a long dirt driveway. We kept on for about another minute before I saw the house.

It was very tall and light looking. It had a wrap around porch with a bench swing the hung from the ceiling. It looked like very wealthy people lived in it, which I guess they did. Her husband was a doctor, if she had a profession I'm sure it paid well. She seemed like a very smart person and her connection with people gave her a certain charm that was most likely hard to find in potential employees.

"We're here." she said as she parked just outside a huge garage.

"Wow." I said breathlessly, turning to get a better view of the gorgeous house.

"Thank you," she said and laughed lightly. "We had it built just before Rose was born." she looked out her window and scanned it up and down with her eyes, looking like she was remembering great memories and stories that I for some reason hoped to hear. She shook her head clear of whatever she had previously been thinking and looked at me. "Are you ready?"

"Not hardly." I said and sighed.

"Well , you'll have to go in sometime."

"I know." she laughed and got out. I rolled my eyes and followed her to the back where my two bags lay in the trunk.

"Don't worry we'll go shopping for you soon." she smiled taking one and I grabbed the other.

"Thanks." I said. Though I loathed shopping, the gesture was nice and for once sounded enjoyable.

She led me up the front steps and across most of the porch before we reached the door. She slipped her keys out of her pocket and put them in the knob, twisting them to unlock the door and let us in.

"Can everyone please come down the family room please, I have someone I'd like you all to meet." Esme called when we first got in the doors.

The first two down was one blond man and a short, pixie like girl.

"Bella this is Alice and Carlisle, my daughter and husband. Guys, I'd like you to meet Bella, she's a part of the family now so we're going to treat her like one okay?" Esme looked at them both with a questioning expression.

Carlisle looked at me with honest eyes, truth glowing behind them "It's lovely to meet you Bella." he took my hand and shook it.

"You to Dr. Cullen." he laughed at that.

"Please, Carlisle." he insisted.

"Carlisle." I nodded.

"Bella," Alice gasped then."That is such a pretty name! Oh,"she threw her arms around me and gave me a hug. I awkwardly hugged her back.

"Um, thanks?" I said with a light tone in my voice.

"Oh my goodness is this all you brought?" she gestured towards my suitcases and I nodded. "Well that just won't do, will it? We'll have to take you shopping here soon."

"I already heard." I smiled and she laughed a sound not far from a baby's coo in response.

By then the others had appeared. A tall, gorgeous, blond girl who I presumed was Rosalie. A boy with curly brown hair who was either Emmett or Edward. I could only figure he wasn't Jasper. I assumed Jasper was the blond boy who walked up to give Alice a kiss.

"It's nice to meet you Bella." he nodded towards me.

"You too." I said and Emmett came up to me then.

"Hey," he said casually.

"Uh hi." I said back.

"So you're new here huh?" he crossed his arms across his broad chest.

"Um yeah, it's my first day." I nodded playing along with whatever game he had set up.

"Figures." he said before laughing. I laughed too, though I wasn't sure what was so funny.

"Rose come and say hello." Esme encouraged but she refused.

"That's okay." I said, I didn't want someone not liking me on my first day here, especially someone who would be the equivalent of a sister to me. "I'm sure I'll get to know you soon enough." I looked at her and she just looked down at her face.

"Rose, you will be nice." Esme said and Carlisle went over to her. He gave her a hug and then let his arms hang on her shoulder.

"Now, where's Edward?" Esme asked herself looking around the room. "Edward come down here please!" Esme called back up the stairs.

"Hold on one second." a voice yelled down the stairs. A smooth velvet voice that I assumed was Edward's.

"What's he doing up there now?" Esme rolled her eyes.

"Writing, he's almost done." Alice shared and he appeared at the top of the stairs.

He was gorgeous, almost unreal looking. His beautiful green eyes burned holes in my brown ones, his tee shirt hugged his body just right in a way that showcased his muscles, his tousled bronze hair looked thick and yet soft at the same time. His rigid jaw line should have thrown of his otherwise pretty face but it didn't. It only made him more beautiful somehow.

"Edward this is Bella, Bella this is Edward."

The boy, who honestly looked more like a Greek god than anything close to a boy, walked down the stairs to me, eyes never leaving mine.

"Bella." he held his hand out for me to shake and I took it, too eagerly. I wanted so badly to reach out and touch the smooth texture that was his face, I wanted to knot my fingers in his hair and see if it felt how it looked.

When I did take his hand, it was as if there was something that wanted me to do everything I already wanted to. A magnetic pull that wanted me closer to him, but I wasn't going to ruin my chances here. So I shook his hand politely and simply said, "It's nice to meet you Edward." he nodded and pulled his hand away. Too soon.

"Alice would you mind showing Bella the house, I'm sure she would love a tour." Esme said smiling as always.

"Sure, come with me." Alice said and danced away.

I followed her, but still risked a glance back at him before leaving the room and disappearing into the shadows.

That's that. What'd you think. Love it? Hate it? Think I should keep going or do you think I should leave FanFiction with what little dinity I have left?

Let me know in a review! Also you can make predictions to what you think will happen next and your thoughts might end up in this story.

Thanks for reaidng!

PLT!

~AliceSwift