I hopped down from the hospital bed searching for my clothes. I found them in a plastic bag on the side of the bed and dumped it out where I was on the floor. It wasn't there. I started crying while still on my hands and knees.

A nurse popped her head in my curtain and quickly came over to the bed and pushed a button on the wall.

"You need to let me get you back into bed, honey," she said crouching down next to me. "What happened? Did you fall out of bed?"

I began to wail louder when she tried to touch me.

"Nurse Mallory, what has happened in here?" A male voice said.

"I don't know, Dr. Cullen. She was down on the floor crying and will not let me touch her," Nurse Mallory said slightly turned from my direction.

Dr. Cullen came to my side and touched my shoulder. I looked up to his face that was blurred by my tears. He looked fairly young with blond hair and blue eyes. "W-w-where's m-my ring?" I blurted out through my sobs.

"Ring? I didn't see a ring. Nurse Mallory did you see a ring on Miss Swan?"

"No I didn't Doctor, but I will check with radiology. That is the only place she has been besides the ER."

Dr. Cullen had managed to get me back into my bed. I was still very worried that I had lost Edward's ring forever.

"You are going to be fine, Isabella. You hit your head pretty hard, but your X-ray does not show any damage. You can be taken home at anytime. If you feel nauseous or your vision blurs, please come back and let me check you out. Your father is in the waiting area. Would you like for me to get him?" he said while removing the tube from my arm.

I shrugged my shoulders. Nothing mattered to me anymore. My ring was the only thing holding me together. I held it in my hand when I would try to sleep, and I would place my hand over my heart to press it into my skin when I felt uncomfortable.

I slowly got dressed and a nurse arrived with a wheelchair to take me to the cruiser. Just before she shut the car door Nurse Mallory ran out of the door and sprinted up to our car.

"Is this the ring?" she said breathlessly as she held up my chain and my ring swung back and forth.

Relief flooded my system and I reached out wildly to grasp the swinging ring in my hand. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Charlie was quiet on the ride home. I was afraid that since he had seen the ring, that he would confiscate it from me. We pulled into the driveway and before I could get out of the car Charlie spoke. "I know where that ring came from Bella. Your mom would kill me if she knew I let you keep it." My mouth opened to say something before he continued but nothing came out. "I was young and in love once. It didn't turn out like I had hoped, but I wouldn't trade the experience for the world." He climbed out of the cruiser and came around to help me out. Once I was settled on the couch, he left to go back to work.

Since the ring was out in the open, I slid it off of the chain and placed it on my right hand ring finger. I stared at it for a few moments before I took it off again and slowly slid it onto my left hand. It wasn't meant for that finger, but since I refused to love anyone else in my lifetime, it belonged there to mark me as his.

I didn't stay in contact with my mother once she shipped me away. I have never returned to California. I had my friend Tracy try to get a message to Edward once, that was how I had found out that he was removed from California as well. Six months after my birthday, Mom and Phil moved to Jacksonville, Florida. Phil had been signed to play baseball there. My mother wanted me to come to live there with her and Phil, but I refused.

Everyday I thought about Edward and where he was. I didn't know that much about his family either. He could be anywhere, even out of the country. I just hoped that he was happy and was not as miserable as I was.

At school the next day I had tried to keep to myself as usual, but for some reason I had attracted a stray dog. Most kids left me alone to wallow in my own misery and despair. Today however, things changed. Mike Newton stood over me at my lab table in biology. I tried to ignore him but he spoke to me anyway.

"So Bella, I was wondering if you would like to go to the Homecoming dance next weekend."

Was this some sort of joke? My eyes darted up to meet his hopeful ones and I realized that he was serious. "Thanks Mike, but no. I'm not going to the dance at all."

"Come on Bella, it will be fun. You've been here in Forks for over a year and none of us knows anything about you."

"I'm not interested Mike," I almost yelled as I ran out of the classroom.

I waited for the slow moving door closure to push the door completely closed before I let my tears fall. Can't everyone see that I'm a wreck? I look like death, I don't talk to anyone, I never smile, and I rush home everyday just to get away from people.

I was startled out of my crying jag by a small girl opening a stall door and coming out. I had seen her before, I had heard that their family had moved here from Alaska last year, but I didn't have any classes with her. She was short and petite with short black hair. She was always dressed very nice in what I suppose were designer clothes. I must have looked like a homeless person next to her.

"I'm sorry," she said as she began washing her hands. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"S'ok," I slurred. "You didn't know I was going to come in here and have a mental breakdown when you decided to use the facilities."

She smiled at me while she dried her hands. "I'm Alice Cullen, by the way." She held out her little hand for me to shake.

"Bella Dwy…I mean Swan," I corrected. It had been so long since I had introduced myself to anyone I had almost forgotten my name. "I met your dad at the hospital the other day."

The bell for lunch rang loudly and we headed for the cafeteria. "Would you like to sit with me today?" she asked.

I felt comfortable with her so far and she hadn't asked me the usual questions about my personal life, so I agreed. We bought our food and headed to a table that had three people sitting at it. Two guys and a girl. One guy was pretty big and muscular with curly brown hair, the other guy was smaller but tall with wavy blond hair, and the girl was tall with blond hair and blue eyes.

"This is my brother Emmett, my boyfriend Jasper and his sister Rosalie," Alice told me, "This is Bella." I smiled and set my tray on the table.

It was confirmed that Alice and her family had indeed moved to Forks from Alaska a year ago. Her father Dr. Cullen was offered the Chief of Surgery position at the hospital here in Forks and had decided that the family would be better off living in the lower 48 states. She had met Jasper on her first day in Forks and had him wrapped around her petite little finger immediately.

Alice was the Editor of the school newspaper, a job she took very seriously. She and Emmett had only been here in Forks for just a year and they were widely known. I had been here just as long, but most people didn't even know I existed.

Alice invited me over after school and practically dragged me to her car when the bell rang to release us. I crammed myself into the back seat so that Emmett could ride in the front. He would have never fit into this tiny space.

The Cullen house was huge. It was a big white house with columns and about a million windows. I stood there with my mouth hanging open before Alice pulled on my arm to get me in the front door. She showed me the living room, kitchen, dining room, solarium, and a giant bathroom that were on the main floor. We headed up the stairs where she pointed out her parents' room, her father's study, a guest room, and Emmett's room.

After two hours of Alice playing with my hair and gossiping about school, I finally was dropped off at home.

Again, Charlie wasn't home, so I made myself a small dinner and headed up to bed. I removed my clothes and slipped into the sweatshirt that had been folded neatly and was lying on my pillow. I curled myself up under the blankets and closed my eyes. I fell asleep turning the ring on my finger.

Edward and I were at the beach in Malibu sitting on a blanket that he'd laid out for us. He had formed a sort of backrest out of the sand so that we were propped up a little. The beach was so crowded it was almost impossible to maneuver down to the water. There were vendors selling all kinds of food and drinks. Edward had bought me a strawberry and lime snow cone, which he had eaten most of. His lips were red from the cold and his tongue was green from the lime syrup. I smiled widely at him before bringing my own frozen lips and discolored tongue to his.

The first 'pop' of the fireworks show sounded and I pulled my face away from his strawberry and lime flavored kisses. He chuckled at me when I gasped at the sight in the sky. "You act like you've never seen any fireworks before." he laughed while placing himself behind me so that I could lie against him to watch the show. He placed one of his arms across my stomach and the other across my chest, lightly gripping my shoulder. I was completely wrapped up by Edward.

The show continued and the sounds of the explosives in the sky went from a thundering 'boom' to a high pitched 'screech'. My eyes snapped open to the pale blue walls of my bedroom. Nearly every morning I was awakened from a dream from a past day I had had with Edward. He was as fresh in my mind as he was the last day that I saw him.

I was dropped off at the curb as usual and watched the cruiser drive away. The first four classes of the day crawled by slower than the last until it was time for lunch. Walking into the cafeteria, I saw Alice and Jasper sitting at a table with several newspapers strewn across it. Alice was looking closely at something when I hit a brick wall in the lunch line. "I'm sorry," I sputtered.

"No problem little one," Emmett chuckled in front of me. "What's for lunch today?" he said as he perused the choices available.

"Mac n' Cheese?" I suggested grabbing a bowl of it for myself.

"You seriously think that I could sustain this," he said gesturing to himself and flexing his muscles, "with just Mac n' Cheese? Come on." He placed what looked to be Salisbury steak on one end of his tray and a plate with a slice of pizza on the other end.

I grabbed a roll and a bottle of pink lemonade before heading to the register to check out. Emmett and I both took in the sight of Alice flipping through the newspapers on the table as we sat down.

"What gives, Alice?" Emmett said before shoving half of the slice of pizza in his mouth.

Alice's eyes darted up to meet ours. "He's back!" she exclaimed jumping in her seat. "I just found another ad for him today."

I stared at her with my eyebrows raised. "Had a little too much caffeine today Alice?" I joked.

"No!" I didn't believe her. "I was checking out the personal ads today in the Seattle Times during my newspaper class when I saw it." She started to fumble with the papers again.

I looked quickly over to Jasper who smiled at me. "She is infatuated with the personal ads. About a year ago she found a weird ad listed in the Times. She checked the next day to find the same ad. She looked everyday for a month and found that the ad ran everyday."

"One day our dad came home from a symposium that he had attended in LA, and had a copy of the LA Times with him when he got off the plane," Emmett told me, "The newspaper editor in Alice read the entire paper from front to back, but freaked when she found the same personal ad from the Seattle Times in the LA Times."

Jasper continued the story. "She decided to do some research. She went to the library in Port Angeles and checked every major newspaper they had for the ad. And guess what she found?"

"What?" I was intrigued now.

"The same personal ad was in ALL of the papers!" Alice squealed. "He disappeared for a while, but now he's back!"

"What does the ad say?" I asked.

"Well," Alice started, "I don't know if I should say. I have decided to do a huge story on it for the school paper. I'll put in a piece of the story in every issue for the next few months. It will be great! Maybe I could even win a Journalism award for it. So if I tell you about it, then it won't want to read it."

I rolled my eyes at her. "I'm so sure Alice. I promise to read your story even if you tell me about it now."

She thought about it for a minute scrunching up her face with indecision. "Nope, you will find out with the rest of the school population." She grinned and stood from the table.

The bell sounded signaling the end of the lunch period and we all packed up our things to head to our last classes of the day.