A/N: Okay, so here's the next chapter. Btw…every chapter will start off with Edward and Bella (in third person) in the present and then it will proceed to the memories (which are italicized). The memories will all be in Bella's POV (unless for some reason stated otherwise). Yep, so here you go. The beginning of a beautiful friendship…Oh yeah, and if you didn't get that whole music reference in the last chapter, it was "Mary's Song" by Taylor Swift…

Disclaimer: I own none of these wonderful characters

"Bella, don't be silly. I know that you did not detest me that day. You were absolutely intoxicated by my very presence," Edward said smugly.

"Oh, shut it Cullen. I was seven years old," Bella answered.

"Well, if I do remember correctly, you didn't run away from me screaming 'cooties' at the top of your lungs. As I recall, you stopped dead in your tracks, with your eyes popping out of your head, the first time you saw me. Oh yeah, and your jaw was in fact glued to the ground," Edward replied smirking.

"Edward!" Bella screamed, slapping his arm while blushing. "I did no such thing…" She trailed off, her thoughts consumed in the memory of when they first met.

"Bella! Get down here now." Mom yelled from downstairs.

"Coming, Mom!" I yelled back. I spit out the last bit of toothpaste in my mouth, rinsed off my toothbrush, and put it away. Today was not going to be a good day, I could tell. We were already running late; Mom said that we were supposed to be at the park five minutes ago.

Last night, Mom told me that we were going to the park in the morning to meet up with one of her old friends. I think she said that they met in high school or something, I don't really remember. I was too busy thinking about the kids that I was going to meet. Mom told me that 

her friend, Mrs. Cullen (I think), had three kids, all about my age. There was a boy that was three years older than me, another boy who was two years older than me, and finally, a girl who was my age. But best of all, they were moving in right next door in about a week! I was so excited! Maybe this girl would be really nice, and we could be best friends!

We walked hand in hand across the playground toward a very pretty lady and three kids, all of them sitting on a bench.

"Renee!" The lady squealed as she hugged my mom.

"Esme! You look amazing! I've missed you. How are you? How's Carlisle? How are the kids? Do you like the house? Isn't the neighborhood great? When—" Mom was cut off by her friend.

"Whoa there, Renee. One question at a time, please. I've missed you too, so much. I'm great, the kids are great, and Carlisle's doing okay. It's a bit of a pain for him at the hospital, with being new and all. He'll be caught up in no time, though. Speaking of kids, I want you to meet my three children. Emmett, Edward, and Alice," She said, pointing at each kid as she said their name. "This is Mrs. Swan and her daughter, Bella."

"It's very nice meeting you all. Esme, you have the cutest kids!" Renee said excitedly.

"I could say the same for you, Renee."

"Oh! I almost forgot. Bella, I would like you to meet my good friend Mrs. Cullen and her children. After high school we went our separate ways, and her family is in the process of moving back to Forks." My mom said.



Mrs. Cullen was very pretty. She had long, wavy brown hair and pretty eyes, too. And then there were her kids. Emmett was kind of big, with dark, curly hair. I was told Emmett was ten, but his muscles were so big that I would've mistaken him for a thirteen year old.

Next was Edward, and boy was he cute! He had reddish, blondish, brownish hair. It was wavy and very messy, hanging down in his face. The longer I looked at him, the cuter he became…

"Hi Bella! I'm Alice. I'm so excited! I just know that we are going to be the best of friends!" Alice squealed while she hugged me, waking me up from my trance. I looked over at Edward and he had a pained look on his face. I laughed quietly to myself.

"Hi Alice. I can't wait to be your friend! Do you want to go play on the playground with me?"

"Yea, Bella, yea! How about we go play with my Barbies on that bench over there," She asked, pointing to a bench on the opposite side of the playground. I liked that idea, seeing as we were partially hidden from our moms. But it's not like they would be able to pay attention to us, with all of that talking going on.

Alice and I were walking over to the bench, each with a Barbie in hand. All of a sudden, something ran past us and grabbed our Barbies. Ugh! How rude!

I looked at Alice curiously, but she mirrored my expression. Then, we turned around to find Edward dangling our Barbies over a puddle of mud. Stupid Forks with its stupid rain! Stupid rain led to stupid mud, which led to the Barbies getting all gross.

I was trying to think of a plan when it came to me. We could get Emmett to help us! He was so big and strong that he could take Edward easily. He could get Edward to hand over the goods and then maybe Alice and I could go play!

I whispered my plan into Alice's ear and she grinned excitedly. Alice knew that her biggest brother had a soft spot for her, and we could easily get the Barbies back.



I stood my ground, staring down Edward while Alice went to get Emmett.

When she came back, Emmett did not come along with her. Oh crap. Plan A definitely just backfired.

"Alice, where's Emmett?"

"Well you see, when I went over there, he was chasing some blonde girl around. I asked him if he would help us get the Barbies back from Edward, but he just said, 'Sorry, kid. You're on your own with this one.' Can you believe him? Not even willing to help out his best/favorite/#1 sister. Not to mention his ONLY sister. Humph." Alice was clearly just as happy about Plan A backfiring as I was. They were her Barbies, after all.

"Well, what are we going to do now?" I asked.

"Um…maybe we could just go up to him and ask him really nicely if we could have the Barbies yet."

"Alice, he's your brother. I've known him for what, five minutes, and I don't even think that that's going to work," I replied, now visibly ticked off at Edward.

"Bella, what are we going to do?! I love those Barbies. They can't get all muddy! That's torture, that's cruel and unusual punishment, for gosh sakes!"

"Alice, calm down. I'll go get the Barbies back from Edward," I told her, while leaving to go talk to Edward.

"Edward…?" I asked in my sweetest, most nice voice ever.



"Yes, Bella," He answered.

"Can I pretty please, with sugar on top, have the Barbies back so me and Alice can play?" I said, still in my nice voice.

"Nope." Edward replied.

"But why not?"

"Because I don't want you to have the Barbies back."

"Edward, PLEASE! Can I please have the Barbies back, please?" I asked, looking back at a nearly crying Alice. Edward was being so stupid. Couldn't he see that Alice loved her Barbies? He was going to be in big trouble if he did anything to them.

"Sorry Bella, but I took these Barbies hostage."

"Well…what do I have to do to get the Barbies back?" I wondered, truly curious.

"You have to eat a…WORM!" He said, smiling to himself, completely happy with the statement that he just made.

"EWWWW! Edward, I am not going to eat a worm. That's gross."

"Fine, but Bella, you're going to have to heal with a very sad Alice when she comes to find her extremely muddy Barbie dolls."

"Well, if you're so smart, why don't you eat the…worm?" I shuddered at the word.

"Because I have no reason to," Edward said smugly.



"Well, guess what? Now you do. Edward, I dare you to eat a worm."

He looked shocked when I said that. I smiled, "See. I knew you were too girly to eat a worm."

"Wanna bet?"

"Sure."

"Okay, Bella. I bet you that I can eat a worm. If I do, then you have to eat a worm, too. But if I lose, you can have your Barbies back."

I thought about it for a moment. How likely was Edward to actually eat a worm? He seemed pretty girly to me. "Okay, Edward. You're on."

I watched as he put the Barbies on the bench next to us and squatted down by the mud puddle. He searched around, looking for a worm, and smiled brightly when he found one. I'm sure that the look of horror on my face was evident when he picked the worm up, opened his mouth, and let the worm squirm down his throat. Oh my. What did I get myself into? Did this mean that I really had to eat a worm?

"Well, Bella, it looks like I won the bet. Care to take your pick?" He smirked, gesturing towards the mud puddle.

I was left with two options. One, I could man up and eat the disgusting creature we call a worm. Or two, I could run for my life. I'm thinking number two.

I looked back at Edward who was holding a squiggly worm in his hand. Just before I looked away, he pretended to throw the worm in my face. Okay, number two is looking really good right now. And with that, I stood up and raced away.



I could hear Edward behind me, yelling for me to come back and eat the worm. I looked back and realized that he was right on my tail, dangling the worm between his fingers.

I was horrified, to say the least. I kept running, and was almost at my mom. I knew that if I got to her and Mrs. Cullen, then they wouldn't let Edward shove a worm down my throat. I turned around again, and Edward was even closer than before.

He could almost touch me, and was reaching his arm out to put the worm in my hair. Edward extended his hand and dropped it. He dropped the worm in my hair. Let me repeat that. Edward Cullen just put a worm in my hair!

"MOM!" My blood curdling scream probably could've been heard a mile away.

And the rest was history.

A/N: Okay, so I hope you guys liked that. I had a little bit of fun writing it…seriously though; I need some reviews in order to keep this story up and running. If you are at all interested in this story, REVIEW! Please and thank you :)