Trees were a foreign concept to Bella. After years of open desert, the vast forest that surrounded Forks felt more like the bars of a prison cell than anything else. To look out and see nothing but dark bark and spongy moss was maddening. God, she was convinced that everything green on Earth decided to pack their bags and move to Forks with her.

"I have a surprise to you Bells," Charlie said out of the blue.

The sound of her father's voice made her jump. Bella's lips turned down into a frown as she gripped her knees tightly. Her heart began to pound. A surprise? What did that mean? Charlie coughed a little. Bella glanced out of the corner of her eye to see him clutching tightly onto the steering wheel. Like father, like daughter it seemed. He was just as nervous as she was.

"I just...I just hope you like it." Charlie coughed again. His knuckles started to turn white.

Bella glanced nervously out the car window. She recognized this street. They were turning into Charlie's neighbourhood.

'Your neighbourhood,' she reminded herself.

Taking a deep breath, Bella started to wring her hands together. "Well that depends on what it is."

They both laughed awkwardly to avoid speaking. A faded red truck sitting in the middle of his driveway caught Bella's eye. She frowned as Charlie pulled up next to the car. Who's car was that? A person wasn't the surprise, were they? Bella pressed her lips tightly together as she fought the urge to throw up.

Charlie turned towards her. There was a sheepish grin on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Surprise," he said, gesturing a hand towards the truck. "It's yours."

Bella blinked owlishly at him. "Mine?"

She didn't understand what he was implying. Charlie just chuckled at her ignorance. Bella flushed hotly.

"The truck is yours. I thought you could use it as a homecoming gift."

Bella opened her mouth but found herself unable to speak because of the sudden tightening of her throat. Charlie had bought her car. The thought had never crossed her mind that he would even do something like this for her. She had always imagined buying herself her own car. With how financially irresponsible Renee was, Bella gave up on the idea of finding a shiny new car in the driveway on her sixteenth birthday a long time ago. She always assumed she would be the one to have to buy it. She didn't know what to say.

"Are you sure?" She blurted out. "I was saving to buy my own car. I could always pay-"

"Don't even talk like that. I wanted to do this for you Bella. Besides, I got it cheap off Billy Black. You remember him, right? From La Push."

Bella racked her brain, but couldn't come up with the face to fit the name. Only the murky image of a man with long black hair and a fishing boat surfaced. However, she couldn't be sure if this was just her grasping at straws to try to remember him.

"How cheap is cheap?" She asked, trying to steer the conversation a different way.

"Pretty cheap. Billy 's son fixed it up himself. You remember he had that accident and is in a wheelchair now, so he didn't have much use for the truck anymore."

Bella felt the knot inside her chest loosen a little. She felt better knowing that he hadn't spent a horrendous amount of money on her. Charlie watched her closely as she walked around her new truck. It was painted red, at least it had been a long time ago. There were a lot of scratches and some rusty parts, but Bella found them enduring. A smile slowly began to form on her face. She couldn't help but be relieved it was a busted up old car. That meant he hadn't been lying about the price of it.

"It's perfect! I really like it."

Charlie's eyes widened in surprise, and he started to smile as well. "I'm glad, Bells."

After putting away her things in her new room, Bella found herself roaming through the kitchen. She went through the cupboards and finally looked in the fridge. Charlie didn't have much left for him alone for the week, let alone two people. Bella ran back up to her room to find the notebook she used to write down all her meal plans and grocery lists. Bella started jotting down all the things they needed. At some point, Charlie wandered in also.

"I was thinking we could order some pizza tonight. I didn't have time to go to the store before you flew in, but I can always go tomorrow."

"You don't have to. I'm already making a list. I can go tonight before the store closes."

Charlie grunted and leaned over Bella's shoulder to see what she was writing down.

"You're making a grocery list?" He asked, disbelief leaking into his voice.

Bella shrugged before saying. "I did it all the time for mom. She was always...too busy to do most of the shopping."

Bella didn't notice as Charlie's frown deepened as he watched her.

"Bella," the sudden serious tone in his voice caused her to look up at him. "I've been living on my own for the past seventeen years. I do know how to feed myself. I know Renee can be kinda careless to put it mildly. I don't want you to think that you have to do this. I can take care of the both of us."

Bella stared dumbly at her father. She didn't understand how her making a grocery list triggered such a serious speech from him. She couldn't remember the last time she had heard such a tone in his voice. Bella shifted uncomfortably on the balls of her feet as she watched him. Did he think she couldn't handle something like this? Tears started to unwillingly gather in her eyes. Bella didn't know why she felt the sudden urge to start crying. Before she could even think of a response, Charlie began to talk again.

"I don't want you to feel like you have no choice in the matter. If you want to do the grocery shopping, I won't stop you, but don't think it won't get done if you don't do it."

Bella took a shaky breath. "I-I want to do it. I kinda like doing it. It makes me feel useful, you know?"

Charlie just sighed heavily and shook his head, but he didn't make any further protest. After a few moments of tense silence, Charlie told Bella that both Billy and his son Jacob would be coming over to watch the game. Bella felt a spike of fear shoot through her thinking about facing them. She didn't remember either of them and knew an awkward encounter was inevitable. Bella scrambled for a reason to avoid seeing them.

"I can go shopping now," she all but shouted.

Charlie's eyebrows furrowed. "Now?"

Bella nodded as she said, "I would rather go now and get it out of the way. Take my new car out for a spin."

Bella tried to give Charlie an encouraging smile, but it felt too forced to truly be convincing. Luckily for her, Charlie didn't protest as she gathered her notebook and a jacket. He gave her some money that would cover the cost of the groceries and told her the directions to the store. Although the ride was a little more bumpy than Bella would have liked, it was surprisingly easy to drive her truck.

Despite the face that grocery store was smaller than she was used to, Bella was starting to feel more calm just walking around inside of it. This was more of her element. She could slowly feel the muscles in her shoulders relaxing as she scratched off the items on her list. Bella even found herself humming. As she craned her head around to try to find the dairy section, she didn't notice another person walking out of the aisle right next to her before it was too late.

The sound of crashing metal as Bella's cart rammed into the side of the other one was deafening. It seemed to echo throughout the entire store much to her own horror. Bella flushed red as she started to apologize to the other woman shopping. She had flowing caramel waves of hair and the most lovely smile. Bella noticed she had deep, dark circles underneath her eyes as if she didn't sleep at night. Her eyes were very dark, almost black. They made her pale skin look almost ivory. However, this did nothing to diminish the woman's beauty. She was easily the most beautiful woman Bella had ever laid eyes on. Despite Bella nearly running her over, she genuinely did not seemed annoyed with her. If anything she looked amused at Bella's frantic attempts at an apology. This only served to further fluster Bella into a stuttering mess.

"You're fine, dear. Don't worry. No blood, no foul," she said jokingly. Her laughter seemed to fill the store.

Bella couldn't help but think there was some inside joke she wasn't getting. She had a death grip on the shopping cart as she tried to slowly to back away. Bella was trying to figure out a way to escape this terribly humiliating moment so she could go wallow in self-pity. The beautiful woman would have none of this though.

"I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting you. Are you Chief Swan's daughter? Isabella? I heard how excited he is to have you back. I'm Esme Cullen, Dr. Cullen's wife."

Bella was secretly relieved that the woman didn't offer her hand in greeting. She was even too mortified to correct Esme on her name.

"Of course," Bella said despite having no idea who her husband was.

The woman smiled, her teeth blinding under the fluorescent lights. She said anything in return. Bella wanted nothing more than to crawl under a rock.

"Well, I won't keep you any longer from continuing your errands. It's been wonderful meeting you, Isabella. I hope you enjoy Forks."

Bella watched as the woman disappeared down another aisle. She let out a large breath once she was gone from sight. Bella beat herself up about how clumsy and stupid she must have looked to the woman the whole way back to Charlie's house. She kept having to remind herself that it was her house now too.

Just as she was starting to calm down from her encounter with Mrs. Cullen, Bella spotted an unfamiliar car in the driveway. Bella groaned and banged her forehead against her steering wheel. She had completely forgotten about Billy and Jacob. Dragging herself out of her car, Bella grabbed some bags and ducked her head into her chest as she walked into the house. Maybe they would be too preoccupied with the TV to really notice her. As her luck would have it, all three heads swiveled towards her as she walked inside.

"Jacob, go help Bella with her bags," Billy said, pointing at her as she walked into the kitchen.

Bella blushed for nth this evening. "No, really it's okay."

This couldn't get any worse.

Jacob only smiled at her. "I want to help. Besides, it'll be nice to catch up."

Bella shot him a tight smile. Jacob's idea of catching up was talking all about how he had helped fix up her new truck by himself. She could tell he was quite proud of it. Oddly enough it helped calm her slightly to hear him ramble on about the car. He didn't ask any personal questions. He simply sat on the kitchen counter as she put away the groceries. Bella even found herself laughing at some of the stories he was telling her. Billy soon wheeled into the room, smirking at Jacob as he said,

"Quit trying so hard to impress her with your car talk. I'm sure Bella is probably tried after her flight."

Jacob glared at his dad as he jumped off the counter. He refused to meet her eyes as he crossed his arms against his chest. Billy rolled his eyes and shared an exasperated look with Bella causing her to start laughing. It felt nice to laugh. Jacob pouted as he walked back out into the living room causing another round of laughter from the two of them.

"Teenagers," Billy muttered under his breath. Bella smiled widely when he winked at her.

He suddenly got a more serious look in his eyes that caused Bella to sober up.

"I'm really glad you're here Bella. Charlie hasn't been able to shut up about you coming since you called him about it. I think it'll be good for him that you're here."

Bella anxiously rubbed the palm of her hand with her thumb. "I'm glad I came."

She was more than surprised to find a part of her actually meant that.

"Maybe you could teach Jacob a thing or two about responsibility. I don't know many teenagers that think to make grocery run."

Bella felt pride well up in her chest. She smiled as she said,

"Thanks, Billy."

There was a beat of silence before Billy told her that he wouldn't keep any longer. Bella told the three goodnight as she marched up the stairs. The weight of the day finally coming crashing down on her. She rubbed the side of her face as she yawned loudly. Bella glanced out the window to see it was raining. She sighed sadly as the sound of it seemed to swallow the entire room. Even with the thought that she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, Bella didn't feel as miserable as she assumed she would be. She couldn't help but smile as the excited shouts of her father and Billy echoed throughout the house. This was the most relaxed she could remember feeling in a while. She knew she didn't have the need to hover around Charlie like she did Renee. Bella hadn't realized how exhausting being around her mother truly was.

Maybe moving to Forks wasn't such a bad idea after all.