Author's Chapter Notes:

I basically came up with this while I was lying in bed last night. I awoke the next morning to a school day canceled due to the snow, and so I started writing. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Birch, Alder, Oak and Apple

Birch: Part One

"Dad," Alice started. "Where are we going. It seems like we're driving more towards the middle of no where by the second." My father had just picked my sister and I up from the Washington airport in his old Ford truck. The two of us had lived in Phoenix with our mother, but she was getting remarried and decided we should spend some time with our dad before we go off to college and live on our own. I thought it was a good idea at the time, although I was a little sad about leaving her.

Charlie shook his head in amusement. "Alice, don't worry, you'll be fine." Alice would never be mistaken as a country girl the way she dressed, and I highly doubted she would like living in a house surrounded by forest. I, on the other hand, wouldn't mind a bit. The busyness of the city was starting to get to me.

Alice's eyes widened when we passed a sign that read 'bear crossing'. "B-bear crossing?" she stuttered. "Oh no, no no. That sign better be an exaggeration."

Charlie turned his head toward Alice where she was sitting beside him in the passenger seat and his hand extended to her shoulder. "I've lived here since I was a teenager and, let me assure you, I've only seen a bear a few times, but not in the past twenty or so years. The town has too many buildings and cars for the bears to come out."

We turned into the driveway of a small country-like house. The white paint was flaking off the sides and the driveway, as far as I could see, had never been paved. To me it felt like home, but it was a world from what Alice was used to and preferred.

The three of us got out of the car and Charlie offered to help carry Alice's bags inside. He gave me an apologetic look and turned to help unload the many pink suitcases. I took my one large duffel bag and carried it upstairs. Out of the two extra bedrooms, one was painted bright pink and significantly larger than the other, which was painted a soft green. I couldn't help but smile at the fact that the house was in the same condition as the time when Renee, Alice and I lived here with Charlie many years ago.

I chose the smaller room with green walls, knowing Alice would want the larger, pink one. After I dropped my bag off on the bed, I went back downstairs to help Charlie and Alice with the suitcases. A loud huff told me that Alice could barely lift her own suitcases. I laughed and opened the front door. "I told you that you would regret bringing so many clothes, Ali."

"I don't regret it, Bella. I just wish I hadn't brought so much."

"That's regretting it," I laughed.

"Whatever," Alice chimed in a fake preppy schoolgirl voice.

"Come on, I'll help you." Charlie, Alice and I lifted the suitcases upstairs into the larger guest bedroom and were finished in roughly twenty minutes. I took a long shower afterward to help ease away the soreness and tension in my back. I felt much better when I got dressed into clean sweats.

"Bella!" Alice called from outside my bedroom door as I was beginning to unpack. "Can you stay in my room instead?"

I sighed. "Why? Are you afraid the bears might come get you?" I spoke, jokingly.

"Bella, please, I just need someone to talk to." Alice and I had always been so close to each other. When we had no one else to spill our problems and secrets to, we could count on each other. I knew when we decided to move that this would be hard for Alice even more so than for me because she had a real life back in Phoenix. She had many good friends, although she often said I was her closest, and she had a boyfriend. Jasper and Alice were the couple all through sophomore and junior years. Alice had once told me that from the moment her eyes met his, she knew, no matter how cliché it is, that he was the one she was meant to be with. But then again, she could make insights like that effortlessly, almost as though she were psychic.

I opened my bedroom door to reveal Alice. She had fake puppy-dog eyes and a quivering frown plastered on her face, but I could see in her eyes that she knew what I was going to say. "Just let me re-pack the clothes I started to put away." Alice's eyes lit up and she began jumping up and down – her happy dance. "Do you have enough room for my clothes in your room?"

"You won't need more than a drawer out of the dresser and a foot of closet space. I have plenty of space; don't worry."

I took the clothes I had put away out of the dresser and back into my duffel bag before dragging it across the hall into Alice's room. "This pink really is blinding," I commented.

Alice ignored me. "Thank you so much for staying in here!"

"Umm...Alice?" When I walked into the room I noticed there was only one bed. "Where will I sleep?"

"You can sleep....Good point." Alice walked over to the bed and divided it in half with her arm, then got up on it and lied down so her body was across it the short way before making her decision. "We can both fit on it; I think it's a double."

"We better. I am not sleeping on the floor."

"Correction: I am not sleeping on the floor. You, however, might."

"Yeah," I laughed. "Right, Alice.

Chapter End Notes:

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