Chapter 1

Bella's POV

I arrived in Forks, Washington on the 393 plane. Charlie-my dad was being comical(or trying to) and held a big sign that read "Swan". Beside him stood an unfamiliar strawberry blonde. This must be his wife of 13 years. He had just told me about her a week ago, when I found out I was going to have to move in. This all happened because she meet Phil, her current husband. He played for a baseball team-strictly minor league- and kept getting traded around so he moved a lot. Talk about a "welcome home" surprise. I had step-mom and didn't know if I even liked her!

"Hello hun," my dad greeted me with a hug. "This is Maria- Violet Swan, my wife," he explained what I had guessed.

"Hello," I said tentivly.

"It is so nice to finally meet you!," Maria exclaimed. She surprised me by gathering me in a huge hug. I was stiff in her arms for a few seconds but then I relaxed. I think I will like her, I thought.

"I've heard so much about you," she released me from the hug. " Charlie speaks so highly of you!"

He does, does he?" I asked raising my eyebrow at him.

He blushed a deep red and dropped his gaze. We had a lot of things in common: we both didn't like to dance and blushed easily. We drove to their house in Charlie's police cruisers, he was still the sheriff of Forks. It was still the same house that Charlie had when he and Renee had married and had me. Although it was the same color theme it looked brighter, as if it had recently been painted. I was surprised that Charlie hadn't let Maria re-paint the house a different shade, but I supposed that marrying your first wife and having you first and only child was a big enough milestone that he wouldn't want anything changed about the place it happened in. I walked up to my room, and liked what I saw.

My room had not been remodeled but updated. There was a semi-new computer and a desk. A nice comfortable bed sat in the corner with my old rocking chair a couple feet away from it. There was also a small end-table next to the bed and a wooden chair next to the window. I set my suitcase on my bed and started to put my clothes away in the dresser sitting in the corner.

"Do you need help?" Maria asked.

"Aghh!" I cried clutching my heart in fear. " You scared me! I didn't hear you come up the stairs."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Maria said.

"That's all right I'm just used to creaky old stairs in my house. Yeah, I could use some help." I answered.

I pulled my other suitcase onto the bed and opened it.

"If you could put my clothes up I'll start to put my memories around the room."

We worked this way for several minutes talking about the weather ( rainy is the usual, she told me).

" Is that your mother?" she asked coming up behind me having finished putting my clothes away.

"Yep," I answered putting the silver picture on my end-table. "And that's Phil. This was their wedding in New Mexico. They wanted to go to Mexico but that plan fell through."

"They look so happy."

"Yeah, Phil plays a lot of ball but he's strictly minor-league. Renee's always wanted to see the country so this was a good match for her. Phil can take care of her so I'm not as worried as I normally would be."

"It sounds like you really love her."

"Yeah, she can be a little irrational some times but she always finds a way through it."

" Well I'm going to go down stairs and start something for dinner. We were going to show you around town if you want later."

"That would be nice." I answered. "Do you mind if I look around for a car around here?"

"No that would be OK, but until you find one you like you can use mine it's in the garage."

"Thanks!"

I went to my computer and switched it on. Of course it was the slow dial-up internet. I waited patiently( a huge feat for me) for it to up load the Yahoo page. When it had finally up-loaded, I typed in the key words used cars. 3,256,245 hits. Oh man, this was going to be a long stay.