I sighed and put my bags in Jacob's car, since they didn't think my truck could make it— I disagreed. I only had two, since I wasn't officially moving yet. We were just going down there for a few days. I'd come back for the official move after that.

"Ready?" Jacob called from the doorway. I nodded.

It only took us two and a half hours to get there with Jacob's fast driving. Renee was right though, the time flew by. Mostly we just talked, laughed and played road games. Sometimes it was so easy to be around Jake.

When we were finally getting relatively close to the school. I looked down at the directions. Charlie told me the apartment was within walking distance. "Umm.. pass the campus, and take the first left," I said it like a question. I'd never been good with directions.

Jacob laughed and took the sheet of paper from me, then raised an eyebrow. "Huh, he wasn't lying. This is actually really close. Hey, at least you don't have to worry about people staring at your truck for being so loud," he teased.

I glared at him. "Nothing is wrong with my truck." He just chuckled and continued driving.

We found the apartment complex fairly easily. I glanced around. It all looked normal, not too pricey. Was I worrying for nothing?

"Okay, Bella. This is it," he said with a grin. He pointed to a door labeled 23A. "Let's check it!"

I took a deep breath. I didn't understand how he was excited. Maybe it was because it wasn't his place. For a moment I wondered where he'd be staying, I'd have to remind myself to ask him about that later. I shrugged and started walking. With nervous hands, I turned the key and went inside.

It was worse that I imagined.

The kitchen was on the left when you walked in, but it was definitely not apartment-sized, it was a room in itself, not just sectioned off like most apartments. Along with everything else the refrigerator was white and, from the looks of it, expensive. The drawers and cabinets were also white, and completely spotless. I walked over slowly to the cabinets and opened them. Exactly what I expected.

Already completely filled with chips, boxes of macaroni and cheese and plenty of other snack foods that I probably wouldn't end up eating. I quickly shut the doors and continued looking.

The stove was a flat top model and black. Over it was a window-type area, minus the glass, where I could see into the living room. (AN: I have no idea what this is called. Hopefully you know what I'm talking about.) If it was possible, I think I was more shocked with what I saw in there.

I quickly walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. The room had been entirely furnished, complete with a tan leather reclining chair, which actually looked pretty comfortable; a small flat screen TV, which was steadily placed on the wall that was facing the chair; a couch that was a warm brown color; a small wooden desk in the corner; and a rug in the center of the room. The room was tied together nicely with a huge window to the right of the chair.

"Wow."

I had completely forgotten Jake's presence until he had spoken. "I know," I said, plopping down into the recliner. I couldn't resist. "What am I supposed to do with all this stuff?"

"I dunno," he shrugged. He was so carefree about everything, it was really bugging me. "It could come in handy when you have people over."

"I don't even know anyone here, aside from you!"

"Don't worry, Bells. It's not like you won't meet anyone here. And besides, I'm staying right down the hall." He tried to sound reassuring.

My eyes got as big as saucer plates, and I stood up. "He bought you an apartment, too?! Based off of this, you'd think he was rich! He's only a cop, and a small town cop at that! I don't see how he possibly—,"

"Hey, hey!" he cut off my little rant, putting both of his hands on my shoulders. "No, of course he didn't. I mean, I know Charlie likes me and all, but he'd never do that. Have you forgotten the job I had fixing cars a few months ago? It actually paid pretty well. Now all I have to do is get a part-time job to keep up with the rent."

I shook my head slowly and walked into the one bedroom. I was actually surprised that there weren't two. I sighed in relief and collapsed onto the full sized bed. This room looked normal, and not too overdone. One bed, one dresser and a small table beside the bed with a lamp and an alarm clock. I also made a mental note that there was enough space to the right of my bed to fit my small bookcase that was in my room at Renee's.

The curtains over the windows were very similar to the yellow lace curtains I had back home since I was born. I smiled a little. It looked like this is where I would be spending most of my time.

--

I woke up to the sound of my alarm beeping. Sleepily, I reached over to turn it off. When I opened my eyes, for a moment I forgot where I was.

Today I had planned to go to the campus and look around. I'd only seen a handful of decent pictures, so I wanted to get an idea of where everything was.

I threw on the typical jeans and a T-shirt and tied my hair back into a messy ponytail. Once I looked decent I grabbed my new keys, small purse and my rarely used cell phone and headed out the door.

I was relieved when I saw there was a sidewalk leading to the school, I'm sure with my luck I'd get hit by a car without it. Or at the very least trip on a rock or something.

Even though the year hadn't started, the school was buzzing with activity, plenty of people socializing. This was the hard part, I'd never been good at starting conversations. I always either didn't know what to say, or ended up making the other person feel awkward. I decided to ignore that fact now and deal with it when the time came.. whenever that time might be.

There was a specific table that caught my eye, even though most people were avoiding it. The table had a bunch of books on it, but in the very middle was Wuthering Heights, my favorite book. I thought I might as well go ahead and get a new copy, mine was almost falling apart from how many times I'd read it. And I never could find a decent bookstore anywhere close to Forks, so I never got a chance to replace my current copy.

"Excuse me," I began shyly. Blushing, of course. "How much is this book?" I pointed.

The man looked up from a magazine and vaguely said, "Umm.. free. It's on the reading list. Funded by the school." And he went back to his crossword puzzle.

"Thank you?" This was the exact opposite from my move to Washington. Everyone there stared at me for a while. Here, I was all but ignored. Not that I was complaining, of course. This was much less embarrassing.

I spotted Jake a few steps away from the table. I smiled and ran over. "I didn't know you'd be here today," I said, hugging him. It wasn't until then that I noticed that we weren't alone.

Standing next to him was a boy with bronze hair. An extremely handsome boy, if I was being honest with myself. I noticed that he was quite pale, about as pale as I was if not paler, and very tall. He looked out of place standing next to Jacob, they didn't even look like they ran with the same crowd.

I stepped away from Jake and extended my hand toward him and managed to smile say, "Umm, hi." I looked up into his eyes. They were a stunning shade of green. His eyes widened a tiny bit, then seemed to harden instantly.

He ignored my extended hand, and nodded. My eyebrows wrinkled in confusion and a bit of hurt, but I still didn't look away from his eyes. He smirked, the expression looking extremely sarcastic, and I dropped my eyes and blushed, yet again. I tried to calm myself and I looked at Jake. Nothing seemed to phase him, he still looked like nothing happened. Maybe I was just overreacting.

"I just stopped to ask directions, but I should be on my way now. My brother is waiting for me." He tilted his head to the left to gesture to, I'm guessing, his brother. He was much taller and more muscular. It was intimidating.

"Wait," I started, but he had already gotten far enough away that he probably couldn't hear me anymore. My shoulders dropped a little.

"Something wrong?" Jake asked, his eyebrows lifting. Clueless.

"No, of course not. Why would there be?" I tried to sound as convincing as I could. I knew I wasn't a good liar, though, so I decided to quickly change the subject. "Let's go get something to eat."

--
(two days later)

It was the last day I had here before I went home to finish packing the rest of my stuff and, hopefully, retrieving my truck. I missed it.

Some how Jacob, being his happy-go-lucky self had already made friends here and was invited to some hangout tonight. He invited me, and though I desperately wanted to bow out, he was persistent. I felt bad about telling him I didn't want to go in the first place, since he wanted me to, but telling him I didn't want to hang out repeatedly? It was hard. I told myself I'd only stay for a while, then go back home and maybe sleep early. We had to leave in the morning so it'd probably be best if I was well rested.

"So, where exactly are we going?" I asked, sliding into the passenger seat of Jake's car.

"It's only like five minutes away," he replied. "Some Asian kid named Eric invited me." He laughed a little, but I could tell he wasn't trying to be offensive.

I whipped my head around and looked at him questioningly. I wondered if it was Eric Yorkie. I couldn't recall Jacob ever meeting him, so that would explain why he wouldn't know Eric. Well, I was right when I thought 'this would be interesting.' It was certainly turning out that way.

We pulled into a long driveway. The house itself wasn't too big, but it was pretty. I let Jake lead the way into the house, and I followed closely behind.

As soon as we had entered, I assumed that this wasn't Eric's house. Maybe his mom's house, since he lived with his dad and step mom in Forks.

There were various paintings framed on the wall, but somehow each matching the rest of the room. Candles were all over the living room and I guessed that they had recently been lit, since the entire room smelled like French Vanilla. The couches and chairs were all a warm tan color with faint traces of flowers on them. Hooked up to the TV was an xbox, which was the one thing that didn't seem to fit in with the rest.

However, there were four people already playing it, Eric being one of them, and a few others watching. Others were scattered around the room talking and eating snacks.

I looked up at Jacob skeptically. "Seriously?" I whispered. "How does this look fun? Are we in middle school again?"

But as soon as the words had escaped my mouth, I saw the one thing that made me want to stay. Over by the staircase, was the boy. I tried to build up all the courage I could. I knew I needed to confront him, or else it would bother me. Even though what I had to say probably wouldn't come out nearly as graceful as I wanted it to, I had to try.

I walked over to him slowly. I was sure that if I tripped, I would die of embarrassment. When I was halfway there he caught my eye, set his drink down and waited for me to get there.

"Our last introduction didn't work well, apparently." I sighed, and the sarcasm left me. "I'm Bella."

His eyes narrowed just a tiny bit, and all he said was, "Edward."

I closed my eyes. This was getting frustrating. "Well, um, it's nice to meet you, Edward," I said, opening my eyes and tried sounding friendly despite the frustration.

I looked at him again, only this time he didn't look quite as annoyed as before. His face had softened some, but the reason was unknown to me.

"I suppose," he said quietly. It almost sounded like he was talking to himself. He nodded politely, and walked gracefully over to where his brother and a gorgeous blonde was standing. Maybe he only associated with people that looked like they should be on the front of magazines? Well, it was worth a shot.

I walked over to Jake, nearly tripping over a power cord by the TV on the way. "I'm ready to go…" I trailed off.

"What?? But we just got here fifteen minutes ago!" he protested.

I gestured around with one hand. "What do you expect to do here? Like I said before, this doesn't look fun at all." With that said I walked hurriedly out the door, intending on Jacob to follow. And he did.

AN: Hmm.. Edward made an appearance. I hope I didn't make it sound to rushed. Review?