A/N: Ok, so… bare with me here… I'm taking it slow… Read. Enjoy. Review…

Trip Around the Sun

Chapter Two: Return to Forks

Mom made me stay in Phoenix with her and Phil until my birthday, in which my father prepared for my arrival. I informed my mother that it would be so much better if I could just start my junior year in Forks, and not have to switch schools right away. She just insisted that she only wanted me to stay there a month, if I still wanted to go after that, she would drive me to the airport first thing the day after my birthday. One month was enough to tell me just how much I needed to not be around Phil anymore.

So, the morning after my seventeenth birthday, I woke up bright an early and mom put me right on a plane to Seattle. Seattle wasn't a popular destination first thing on a Saturday morning, and I was just about the only one in coach and I put up the arm rests and slept the majority of the plane ride, dreaming of home with just mom. I only woke up when a very pleasant flight attendant woke me up so I could put my seatbelt back on for the landing, which was a bit bumpy.

"Hey, Bells," said Charlie, my dad, as he came over to me and gave me an awkward one armed hugged, "Good to see ya, kiddo."

"Good to see you too, Dad," I said as the luggage claim kicked into motion, and my bags came out first, then Charlie insisted on carrying the heavier ones to the car, "Thanks."

"No problem," said Charlie as he shut my suit cases into the trunk of his police cruiser and I hopped into the front seat next to him.

I put my ipod into my pocket out of respect for Charlie, even though I knew we wouldn't be talking much on the two hour drive to Forks. I readjusted myself in my seat to get comfy towards the middle of the ride and put my ipod in, only to take it out again as we entered the small and dreary town of Forks. It was raining, and the water droplets were pounding hard down on the car, typical Forks.

"Welcome home, Bells," said Charlie, and I smiled weakly at him, but didn't say anything.

We drove through town, and I was unsurprised that nothing about the two stop light town had changed since I was eight. It was still just as quiet, and the dinner was full of cars, it was about noon, so it made sense. Even the kids looked the same, though now I knew they were my age, and not just the teenagers that I would see hanging around the fishing area and the center of town.

"Not much has changed huh?" I asked as we passed the street that led towards the more wooded residential area near the river, and turned onto Charlie's, or rather, our street.

"We got a new Doc," said Charlie simply and I just looked at him, about to start laughing.

"Well I would assume so," I said, "The old one was about ninety, and that was when I was eight."

"Just moved here a few years ago," said Charlie and I nodded as he pulled into the driveway and we got out, "You need a hand with those bags?"

"Yeah, can you just help me put them in my room?" I asked, and he nodded as he lifted them up and out of the cruiser's trunk, "Whose truck?"

I was about to head to the house with my backpack carry-on on my back and a rolling suit case behind me when I saw it. It was a really old school red pick-up truck, it seemed oddly familiar, but I couldn't place it. The sight of it had stopped me in my tracks, had Charlie finally gotten over mom, was my new step mom waiting inside for me? But Charlie would have told me.

"It's yours if you want it," He said as he came and stood next to me, my bags weighing him down, "Bought it off Billy, Jake's quite the mechanic. I had him rebuild the engine for you."

"Thanks," I said appreciatively and he took my back pack and the handle of the wheeling suitcase to hand me the keys, "Go head and check it out, take it for a spin, just be careful, the streets here aren't always paved very well. I'll get your things to your room, and meet me at the diner at six for dinner ok?"

"Ok," I said, and I started walking over to the truck, "Thanks, Dad."

"No problem, Bells," said Charlie and I waited for him to get into the house before I finished walking over to the truck.

All I did was look at it and tinker around with the few things I knew to check. I was a little out of my own person element when it came to cars, and after a little while I went into the house, ready to get my stuff all settled. I was just glad that all I had to worry about tomorrow was showing up as the new kid, and not the new kid getting dropped off in a police cruiser.

I walked into the house as Charlie was getting settled on the couch and I was glad he just stayed there and let me get to my room by myself. I sat down on my bed and pulled the lap top mom had gotten for my birthday out of one of my bags, I would be living out of my suitcases the first couple weeks, and just let everything find its place as I went.

I opened my laptop and logged onto my Facebook, my mother's idea of how would we could keep up other than texts and phone calls. It was a little weary on the idea of my mom getting one, but it was practical, that way she could look at pictures of my new friends too, which was her thoughts and not mine. I went along with it anyways, she meant well.

I skipped dinner that night and just went to sleep, or rather went to lay on my bed and stare at my ceiling. I was nervous about the first day of the rest of my life, and really? Who wouldn't be?

I woke up the next morning and it was raining, perfect. Any thoughts of arriving gracefully were gone, I wasn't the most coordinated. I rolled out of bed, showered, dressed, and headed off to school. I was dreading school, all the kids here had always ignored me, then again, I wasn't always the most social. Though, they could have at least said hi and asked me to play jump rope or something with them, we were eight.

I pulled into the school parking lot, and parked in a spot towards the edge of the lot. I got out slowly, trying not to slip on the wet pavement, and I glanced around. A short girl, who looked old enough to be a young teacher, but was dressed like a student was watching me with a smile. She had short and pixie styled dark hair, and she was holding the hand guy with wild curly blonde hair. His eyes looked even crazier, though they matched her golden eyes. They both looked like super models, and I hoped to dear God that not everyone here looked like that, there was no way I was going to fit in.

The girl caught me staring and she skipped over, pulling the guy with her, he looked like he was a little bit nauseous. She smiled in a friendly way and stopped about a foot in front of me. There, she just smiled at me and gave me a cheery half hug so that she wouldn't loose contact with her boyfriend.

"Hi," she said happily, "I'm Alice, this is Jasper, he's shy, don't expect him to talk. Welcome to Forks! You're Chief Swan's daughter, right?"

"Yeah," I said, kind of weirded out by the friendliness, though just as quickly as it came, a wave of calm came over me, and I knew this wouldn't be as bad as I thought it was going to be.

"Well, welcome, and don't worry, we'll take care of you, we're Dr. Cullen's foster kids," said Alice nicely, then she motioned to some of the other kids around the parking lot, "Most of them can be complete imbeciles. Where's your homeroom, we know all about being the new kids…"

"Mrs. Walker?" I said, trying to sound sure of myself.

"We have her too," said Jasper quietly and Alice looked over at him, shocked.

"Yeah," said Alice, still looking shocked up at Jasper, "We'll take you there."

"Ok," I said and I followed them up to the school as they deflected some of the students that I would have otherwise had to.

"Bye, Tyler," said Alice to a kid that walked up behind them to me, and I smiled at him quickly and followed them up to sit in homeroom, "Mrs. Walker, this is Bella."

Did I tell them my name? And even if they knew it was Isabella, how would they know it was Bella, not Izzy, or Ella?

"Hello, Bella," she said, "Chief Swan's daughter, right?"

"Yeah," I said, looking down at my toes.

"Well, here's your schedule," she said with a kind smile, and she handed me my class schedule.

"Can I compare?" Alice asked, hand outstretched for my schedule, and I nodded as she took it.

"Sure," I said as I slumped into a desk next to her.

"You have history, foreign language, and gym with me," she said, "And you have Biology and study block with Jasper. I think you're in Human studies with Angela though."

"Who's Angela?" I asked curiously.

"Hey, Angela," Alice greeted a shy looking girl who was coming in the door with a girl on either side of her, and then added under her breath to me, "Don't pay much attention to Lauren, Jessica's relatively nice though…"

"Ok," I said as I turned back to smile up at Jasper, he seemed down, but he smiled kindly back.

"So you two are um, dating?" I said, it was a little weird, being foster siblings or whatever that they were dating.

"We started dating back in the orphanage," Alice explained, then a few years ago when Dad found us, we were fourteen and when he realized he decided to foster us both. But we kept moving, so we always just had the paper work to fill out so he could bring us from state to state, and now we'll be eighteen soon, so it's not worth it, he's our daddy, that's all that matters."

"Makes sense," I said, and I didn't know why I was so curious, but then I added, "So then it's just you two and your dad?"

"Yeah," said Alice, and Jasper nodded, with a little smile that made me feel left out.

"I guess that makes us a little a like," I said and Alice laughed a little.

"Why did you come back?" Jasper asked casually, though just as quiet as before.

"Mom got remarried," I said simply and he opened his mouth to ask a further question, but Alice elbowed him in the rib.

"What do you have planned for after school?" Alice asked and I shrugged.

"Homework?" I said.

"You should come over," she said with an excited smile, and I nodded that I would as the bell rang to go to first period.