AN: Good morning my friends. I hope you all have enjoyed the first three chapters. I know it's very similar to how Twilight began but it will change and vear off more so once Jacob comes into the picture and will become more of my own material than Stephenie's. Anyway, anything you recognize is Stephenie Myer's and anything you don't is mine. Today is Tuesday July 13th, 2021 and this is the first chapter today!

When I opened my eyes in the morning, something was different.

It was the light. It was still the gray-green light of a cloudy day in the forest, but it was clearer somehow. I realized there was no fog veiling my window.

I jumped up to look outside, and then groaned in horror.

A fine layer of snow covered the yard, dusted the top of my truck, and whitened the road. But that wasn't the worst part. All the rain from yesterday had frozen solid — coating the needles on the trees in fantastic, gorgeous patterns, and making the driveway a deadly ice slick. I had enough trouble not falling down when the ground was dry; it might be safer for me to go back to bed now.

Charlie had left for work before I got downstairs. In a lot of ways, living with Charlie was like having my own place, and I found myself reveling in the aloneness instead of being lonely.

I took my time with breakfast thinking about my friends from school. Mike was very puppy-like the way he followed me around and honestly I could see it in Eric too. Maybe they had crushes on me? The thought made me blush. I didn't have any interest in either of them and it was pretty obvious Jessica was crazy about Mike. I would do my best to guide Mike into Jessica's path as much as possible. Eric, though, I hadn't seen anyone interested in him. Angela, on the other hand, was extremely nice and I could see myself being able to confide in her eventually but I wasn't there quite yet. Lauren, I could tell, had a very hard personality and it made me wonder why. I pondered that for a moment then glanced at the clock. Crap. I was late. Really late.

It took every ounce of my concentration to make it down the icy brick driveway alive. I almost lost my balance when I finally got to the truck, but I managed to cling to the side mirror and save myself. Clearly, today was going to be nightmarish

My truck seemed to have no problem with the black ice that covered the roads. I drove very slowly, though, not wanting to carve a path of destruction through Main Street. It was terrifying trying to drive through this.

I gaped as I slowly pulled into the parking lot. A dark blue van had crashed into a pretty red car in the parking lot. The van looked okay but the red car had a bad dent in the side and a cracked mirror. No one seemed to be hurt but everyone involved looked badly shaken. A good looking boy I had seen around school was sitting on the curb with his head in his hands. Lauren sat next to him, shivers convulsing her body. One of the teachers silently placed a coat around her shoulders. She didn't even notice. Tears started to trickle down her face.

I very carefully got out of my truck and I suddenly realized why I had so little trouble getting to school okay. Something silver caught my eye, and I walked to the back of the truck — carefully holding the side for support — to examine my tires. There were thin chains crisscrossed in diamond shapes around them. Charlie had gotten up who knows how early to put snow chains on my truck. My throat suddenly felt tight. I wasn't used to being taken care of, and Charlie's unspoken concern caught me by surprise.

"Ohmigod, did you see what happened?!" Jessica asked, walking up to me quickly, pulling my attention away from the thoughtful gesture from my father.

"No, I was running late and just got here, what happened?" I asked as Angela came up to us, her face pale.

"Well Tyler was going way too fast and hit the ice wrong, he said so himself. His van did this weird sideways thing and almost skid across the whole parking lot -"

"Don't exaggerate Jess!" Angela said, wiping a hand against her eyes. "It's bad enough without that."

"Okaaay! So about half the parking lot -"

"JESSICA!"

"ALRIGHT! It was a few feet." I did my best not to laugh. "Anyways, he skidded and hit Lauren's car."

"Thankfully Lauren hadn't gotten out of her car yet. She was still gathering her books from the backseat. Unfortunately she hit her head against the steering wheel pretty hard." Angela said with a shuddering sigh. "She's prone to migraines so I'm sure this will trigger one for her. Poor thing."

"Poor thing my foot. I'm sure she'll be fine and that this will turn out to be one of the best days of her life." Jessica said with a smirk.

"Jess -"

"What does that mean?" I asked, confused.

"It means that Lauren's been in love with Tyler since like the second grade. She doodled her name and his in all her books when she was younger." Jessica said with a snigger.

"You shouldn't talk about her like that, Jessica." Angela said with a frown. "When she finds out you told she'll be really upset."

"Like either of you would tell." She said with a snort, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

Angela opened her mouth to respond but Coach Clapp came up to us. "Come on girls, time to get to class. No one was hurt. There's nothing to see here."

I blew out a heavy breath and turned to head to English. Mike came up next to me and started to chatter to me about the crash. I smiled and nodded along but it was hard to pay attention to what he was saying. There was so much going through my mind. Most of my thoughts revolved around Lauren. Maybe that's why she seemed so hard. Unrequited love. I had never been in love myself and figured I wouldn't be any time soon but I could sympathize with her, all the same. Poor girl. I would do my best to be nicer to her in the future.

AN: Please review friends! It means so much to me guys and it helps me get out chapters faster!