Title: Endless Waltz

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Stephenie Meyer… except the characters you don't recognize.

Summary: Can a night, a fateful meeting with a blond-haired vampire change your life forever? For eighteen-year-old Bella Black the answer is yes… future!fic, Jasper/OC

Rating: T, but it might go up in the future chapters

Bella Black

My mother's name was Isabella Marie Swan.

She was a nice woman, with ivory skin and deep, brown eyes. And she died giving birth to me.

I knew the story in detail because my father had been telling me that every birthday since I was four. How the doctors discouraged her from having me, after all the problems she'd had with her first pregnancy. How she stubbornly decided to give me a chance to live no matter what. How she bled to death in the delivery room after I was born. I never had a family birthday party, never had gifts. Just a drunken father and an older brother that looked at me and wondered aloud why I had to be the one to survive that fateful day. My appearance didn't help much. Mom and I didn't share just the same name, I also looked exactly like her. Looking at her photographs, it was like looking at my reflection in a mirror. Same hair, same paleness, same smile. I had nothing in me that could reveal that I was actually half Quileute. The only difference between me and my mother were the eyes. Mine were a deep shade of blue, and probably the most discussed thing in the reservation. Everyone knew my mother married Jacob Black because the love of her life had abandoned her for some unknown reason; my blue eyes just fueled the gossip saying she wasn't just unhappy, but also a cheating wife. The truth was simpler than that: I just had my maternal grandmother's eyes, but I supposed no one would believe me. Renée, that was her name, never approved of my mother's wedding. Renée said my mother was 21, and too young to get married. Her refusal to come and visit my mother grew with time, and she also refused to visit my brother and I.

Grandpa Charlie was great, though. I was his precious little girl, and no one could say or do bad things to me with him in the surroundings. Sometimes I wished I could live with him in Forks, just to stay in the house where my mother had grown up and hear stories about her. No one talked about my mom here. Except for a few photographs, everything that belonged to her had disappeared long ago in some boxes in the attic. It took me some time, but I managed to smuggle a few of her things in my room. Her books, for example (like me, she loved Wuthering Height to pieces). Some of her clothes, and the photo albums of when she was young. Sometimes she's pictured in there with a tall, handsome boy with bronze hair. I bet that was my father's love rival. Ok, if she never married my father I wouldn't be here, but… God. They looked so adorable and in love. What the hell had happened? I couldn't help but wonder, but that question would never have an answer. The only person who could answer had been in a grave for the last seventeen years of my life. Seventeen years, eleven months, three weeks, and six days, to be precise. Just one day, and I would be eighteen, free to go away from my personal hell…

"Bells! Hey, Bells, what are you staring at?"

I woke up from my reverie and smiled. "That wall across the street. It's strangely appealing today."

Dave sighed and sit next to me on the bench. "Another fight with your father, Bella?"

"Dave, you might want to start counting the days when we are not fighting. It would be easier."

"Care to come to dinner at my place? Quil will be there with Claire. And Mom will be delighted to see you. I've heard she's making her famous apple pie…"

I smiled. "My favorite? How could I say no?"

Dave Call was God's personal gift to me. I didn't know how I would've survived high school without him. He was more my older brother than my real older brother. And Kim, his mother, was such a sweetheart. I heard her parents eloped the day after their graduation, and one year later, Dave was already born. I never saw two people more in love with each other, excluding the pictures of my mother and her mysterious boyfriend. And excluding, obviously, Claire and Quil. Claire was just three years older than me, but no one ever said nothing about the huge age difference between her and Quil. Mostly because no one believed he was really almost two decades older than his girlfriend. Cradle robber that he was, I never heard Claire complaining. Lucky her.

"So…" he started, "What are your plans?"

"Packing. I didn't change my mind."

"Bella, please. Are you sure?"

"I have the house I've inherited from my grandfather in Forks. I can find a job there, save money for college… I can make it. And you can come visit! It's not like I'm moving to Europe or something like that."

"I wish you wouldn't do that."

I wished that too. But I never fitted in at the reservation. My blue eyes were in striding contrast with the dark skins and the black and brown eyes of the other people in La Push. The few sunny days we had there in the Olympic Peninsula were lethal for my skin, especially during summer. I had to stay in the house or go around with a huge hat and sunscreen, and sometimes I got burned anyway. Dave joked sometimes that my mother probably conceived me with a vampire, one of the Cold Ones from the legends of our tribe.

"I don't have a choice. The fights are getting worse, and Charlie… well, you know my brother."

"I can't believe they won't try to stop you."

"Because you come from a real, honest-to-God family. Mine is… different."

And not in a good way. My mother's death broke my father, or so I was told. One day he was a happy husband and father, and the next he was a widower with a three-year-old to raise and a daughter he couldn't even hold in his arms. I didn't know why he had named me after her. Maybe he hoped things would get better. Yeah, right. He had fed me, put a roof on my head, but he never really understood me. And my brother was exactly like him.

"Listen, Bells… Why don't let me organize you a nice birthday party? So you can properly say goodbye to all your friends, before moving?"

"Dave, all my friends will be at your house this evening. And you know that."

Big mistake. "Good! We'll celebrate tonight, then!"

Oh God, here we go again… when Dave had that look in his eyes, you had to brace yourself. Anything could happen. Anything. Before I could stop him, he had jumped on his feet to run home to his mother and tell her the news. Well, at least I would spend my last night in La Push laughing instead of moping at my house. It was a good thing. I hoped it was.

Ok, I was wrong. Dave didn't do anything out of the ordinary, except buying me the most beautiful necklace I had ever seen. The stones were the same color of my eyes, and also matched my long sleeved shirt. I wondered if I should take my gift off before going home, but I decided I didn't care.

I had a great time with the Calls, and I congratulated Quil and Claire on their upcoming wedding. Everyone tried to convince me to stay… but I couldn't. I really couldn't. I had been counting the days since my fourteenth birthday. I sighed and went inside my house trying not to make any sounds, but my father heard me anyway. He always did.

"Where have you been, Isabella?"

I was Bella to everyone except him. For obvious reasons.

"Dave invited me to dinner at his house."

"It would've been nice if you'd asked for permission."

"I left you a message on your voicemail. Not my fault if you didn't check it. And for God's sake, it's the Calls we're talking about. They've known me since I was two days old."

He stared at me in silence for a while, drinking his beer – the sixth, if I didn't miscount the empty cans at his feet – and then he asked where the hell I've found that shirt and necklace.

I lied. I told him they were both gifts for my birthday from Dave and Claire. It was only half a lie. The shirt… the shirt was my mother's. We both looked good in blue, I had discovered.

"Your birthday is tomorrow."

"I know."

"I don't feel like celebrating."

When I was little he added always a 'I'm sorry' at the end of that phrase. He stopped saying it around my tenth birthday.

"Don't feel obligated. I'm not a little girl anymore."

I started to go upstairs, but I saw my brother coming down. Charlie was huge. I mean, really huge. And it didn't look like he was 20, but more like he was in his early thirties. He shot me the hostile glare he reserved only for me, and sat near our father to watch the game on TV. They started talking, and I became invisible.

Story of my life.

I finished packing by midnight. I looked at my unadorned room, and I smiled. The next day would be the first day of the rest of my life. I couldn't wait to leave.

And apparently, neither could Charlie. He entered my room, gave a look to the bare walls, and then looked at me with a smug smile.

"I thought I heard some strange noises, sis… What are those bags?"

"Come on, Charlie… use the brain. I've turned 18 ten minutes ago. I can go away from this house and you can't stop me."

"Like I planned to stop you. You wanna go, Isabella? Be my guest. We'll be better off without you."

I had always known Charlie couldn't stand me. But hearing him voice his thoughts like that… I wasn't prepared to feel all that pain inside of me.

"Do you have any idea how it feels like to watch you every moment of every single day? You're here, and she's not. It would've been better for everyone if things had gone differently. And Dad thinks the same as me."

I choked back tears. I would never give Charlie the satisfaction of knowing he hurt me.

"Well, your wish has been granted. I'm leaving."

"My mother was the sweetest person ever. And because of you and your damn eyes everyone thinks she cheated on Dad. You're an insult to her memory. Don't forget to leave the keys on the kitchen counter on your way out."

He closed the door behind him and I finally cried. That was my brother... I couldn't even think of what my father could tell me, but I knew for sure I didn't want to hear it. I left my keys on the kitchen table, and I loaded my bags inside my car. I would have to ask Dave to take my file from school so I could enroll in the high school in Forks and finish my senior year. Thanks to an almost friendless life, I had saved enough money to go ahead with my plans and not to worry about asking anyone for money.

The sky was filled with clouds, and they had that particular color clouds had when it was going to snow. One of the consequences of being born in December. Charlie's cruel words kept ringing in my ears. He suffered. I knew that. But at least he had memories of our mother. I just had photographs. I pressed on the accelerator hard, and drove all the way to Forks to my late Grandpa's house. When he died of a heart attack, I felt like I lost the only family I had. He saw so much of his beloved daughter in me… in his eyes I was perfect. When he realized how unhappy I was, he tried to convince my father to let me stay with him. Jacob had never consented to this. He left me the house and all his money, though. Just in case… His choice made my brother hate me even more, if that was possible.

But when I stepped inside, I suddenly realized I didn't want to be there. I had to go somewhere else.

I left my bags near the stairs, and I jumped in the car again.

I didn't know why, but my mother was buried in the Forks' cemetery instead of the La Push one. By the time I arrived there, the snow was already falling. Thick, white snow that would cover everything in a matter of minutes. I walked slowly to my mother and grandfather's graves, and I knelt before them. I leaned on my mother's grave, imagining she was right there with me, holding me close. I tried not to, but eventually I started to cry again.

"Why don't they love me? Why, Mom?" I whispered between sobs. The temperature was freezing, but I didn't care. I kept crying, hugging myself with my arms. I don't know how long I was there. The snow was falling on the grass, the graves… and me. It was covering everything like a beautiful white blanket. I couldn't help myself, I started watching the snow fall from the sky, and suddenly the cold weather wasn't important anymore… I didn't even feel cold. I just wanted to sleep. Sleep and dream of my mother, like when I was a little girl.

Jasper Hale

It was weird to be in Forks again. Carlisle said it was just for a few months, until we could move to Canada again, but I knew better. Carlisle, Esme, Emmett and Rosalie wanted to come back here to mourn Edward and Bella. Last time I saw Bella Swan, she had just turned 18. And I almost killed her because I couldn't control my bloodlust. Edward convinced us to leave for her own good, so that she wouldn't have to risk her life again for something as stupid as a paper cut. Edward never recovered. His heart broke that day. He struggled just to exist, and wait till Bella's death. I still remember the day when Alice told us that she saw Bella's funeral. We tried to stop Edward from going to Volterra again, but he tricked us and left before we could devise a plan. Alice ran after him to stop Edward from committing suicide… but the Volturi killed them both. The family never really recovered in this eighteen years. We couldn't forget the family members we lost. That's why I was there in the cemetery. I wanted to see Bella's grave. I wanted to ask for her forgiveness. Everything had happened because of me. My poor self-control had ruined the lives of too many people…

I looked at the graves and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A beautiful brown-haired girl was sleeping against one of them, half covered in snow. I stared at her open-mouthed. I couldn't be mistaken. That was Bella. Edward's Bella, the girl I almost killed eighteen years earlier. She looked exactly like the last time I had seen her… For a second I imagined she could be one of us, but I could heard her heart beating and smell her scent. She was human. I got closer, I smelled her again. The scent was not the one I remembered. It was still mouth-watering, but there were a few different notes… she didn't smell just like freesia, but more like rose, and honeysuckle… She definitely wasn't Bella Swan. And 

her smell was even better than Bella's, if that was possible. What was she doing there at night, with that weather? I knelt, touching her face with my hand and turning her face so I could look at her better in the dim light. I widened my eyes. Her lips were blue. I could see trails left by tears on her cheeks. And my God, she was almost as cold as me!

I took her in my arms, rubbing her cold limbs with my hands in an attempt to warm her. Nothing. How long had she been there?

"Wake up! Please, wake up! You must stay awake!"

She barely opened her eyes. Her eyes weren't brown… they were blue. No, that was reductive. Her eyes looked more like sapphires….

"I want to sleep… leave me alone…"

"Like hell. You need to see a doctor, immediately."

She tried to protest, but she was too weak. I took her in my arms and I ran faster than I could at our old house. That girl couldn't die. I already lost too many people. And she looked exactly like her… It couldn't be a coincidence. I hoped Carlisle could help her.

Bella

My imagination must have run wild. I could really feel a pair of strong arms engulf me in a strong embrace, and try to warm me up.

"Wake up! Please, wake up! You must stay awake!"

It was a male voice… one I never heard before. I opened my eyes, and I realized what I had done. Way to go, Bella. I realized I was in the arms of a blonde angel, with amazing golden eyes. I had never saw someone more beautiful. And his skin was paler than mine… incredible… I wished I could look better at that beautiful face, but I was too tired. I couldn't stay awake…

"I want to sleep… leave me alone…"

"Like hell. You need to see a doctor, immediately."

And suddenly I was flying. Maybe that was what dying felt like. I rested my head against his shoulder, and closed my eyes. If I really had to die so young and for such a stupid mistake, at least I was being carried away by the most beautiful angel in the sky. And in a matter of minutes, I would see my mother again…