(I own nothing, just my imagination and my laptop! If I did own Edward, believe me, YOU WOULD KNOW)

Chapter 1

New

There are lessons your parents teach you all the time. How to tie your shoes laces, brush your teeth twice a day, etc. Those things stick with you for life. Hopefully. Apparently, I, Bella Swan, had lived at Forks, Washington for a little over nine months. I remembered none of it. Every time I tried to think back on those months, the inevitable blackness invaded. If it hadn't been for Charlie, my dad, I wouldn't know why I got into an accident. He said I was trying to get somewhere, but he didn't know where. I really wanted to get there, though, since I was going over ninety miles an hour.

Nothing was familiar in my room, besides the ever-present rocking chair, which seemed sacred to me, though I have no idea why. Charlie told me starting over is the only way to go, so he called up an old collage friend of his, and asked if I could stay with them for a few months while I "recovered". Besides the amnesia, I had three cracked ribs, a wicked bruise on my stomach, and black eye to challenge Rocky.

"Maine is great, Bells," Charlie said. "You won't have to get new clothes or anything, since the climate over there is the same climate here." He sounded like he was trying to reassure himself and not me. Shopping with your daughter after she's just forgotten all those months you spent trying to get comfortable with her isn't Charlie's forte.

A few people came to visit me when I was in the hospital. A cute, blonde boy who introduced himself as Mike Newton was almost always accompanied by a short girl named Jessica. The way they acted around me told me that we had only been friends over the school year. Awkward silences and small talk, not to mention Jessica's sideways glances also informed me that maybe this Mike like me, and Jessica was jealous. How odd.

My dad was present in all of these conversations, to my annoyance. I was rewarded with a semi-answer to these sit-ins a couple days after the accident.

Mike was mumbling about the new school year, when the silence suddenly became overpowering. Jessica, who I think was a talker but had nothing to say that didn't have anything to do with people that I knew(or didn't), opened her mouth to say:

"My mom was telling me a couple days ago, Bella, that if Dr. Cullen was he-"

But she was cut off by Charlie who thought that maybe I needed some sleep, and suggested that they go. Jessica looked alarmed, but Mike just looked bored, and kept looking at me, expecting that suddenly I would miraculously be healed and would jump into him telling him profusely that I could never forget him. I hope he enjoys disappointment. I was stumped, to say the least, at why Charlie didn't want to talk about this "Dr. Cullen".

So when the normal nurse stepped into the room later that ay to take my pulse and ask me if I remembered anything, I went into questioning mode.

Unfortunately, my people skills were never that good, so I'm sure I sounded a little feeble.

"Who is Dr. Cullen?" I asked. I raised my eyes to hers in a gesture I meant to be innocent, but I'm sure it looked more like discomfort. She didn't mind, but smiled and fluffed my pillows.

"Sweetie, why do you want to know? Is his name triggering some memories?"

I searched the black wall, trying to find a crack, but didn't succeed. I shook my head.

"Well, Dr. Cullen used to be a doctor here. He left about a week ago." She turned her back and went to checking my blood pressure. I was disappointed, why would Charlie care about him?

A knock on my bedroom door brought me back to the present day. I picked up my two trunks and opened the door. Charlie stood in the doorway, hands open ready to take my bags. I smiled shyly and followed him to the front yard. My plane to Denver, Colorado was leaving in an hour and a half. The trip to the airport was silent, as I expected and cherished. We arrived at the plane depot, where Charlie filled me in about Greg and Dee Craven in less than five sentences. Greg was a pharmacist, and Dee stayed home. I would be enrolled into the school about two weeks after my arrival. They would love me, and Dee was a great cook. Better, maybe, than me, Charlie said. How would he know, I thought, he's never ate my cooking. Wait, maybe he has. I wouldn't know.

After my plane arrived in Denver, I was sent to Chicago, and finally Augusta, Maine. On the way there, I thought over what I did remember. My mother wanted to go away with Phil, my step dad, and I stoically said I'd go and live with my dad. My mom drove me to the airport, and I was wearing my favorite shirt with a parka as a carry on. No difference there, I joked, looking down at the same parka in my frail arms.

Greg met me outside the plane. If there ever was a man different from Charlie, Greg was him. Longish, graying hair and a boisterous voice were the first things I noticed. He enveloped me in a bone-crunching hug that would've bothered me, but strangely, my body didn't mind. Maybe I'd gotten a lot of these types of hugs before the accident.

"I hope you don't mind Tori Amos," Greg said. "She's my favorite. Dee doesn't like her, but she has her modernized music."

The ride from Augusta to Vienna, Maine wasn't as stilted as rides with Charlie were. Greg wanted to know everything about me, and as soon as we got to the house, he could have written a biography about Bella Swan.

"Well, here it is." Greg said proudly, gesturing to the two-story brick house in front of us. "Dee will be in the kitchen, she almost always is. Come on!"

Here I go with starting over.