Any suggestions?

This is like a filler chapter that I think is totally necessary at this point for history's sake. Think of it as a late prologue or back-story.

I don't own Twilight.

Bella- I got a scholarship to finish my degree at USC with my 3 best friends, Jake, Rosie, & Alice. I transferred here to USC for several reasons but the two biggest motivations were because Jake received a scholarship to play football here and if I am being completely honest, I came here to keep an eye on my mom, Renee. This has recently become her new zip code as well when she moved in with her new dirty-fuck face of the month, Phil.

We'll see how long it lasts.

Because of my diligence in high school--or rather my lack of social life and plenty of time for books and studying-- I graduated with great grades. With said good grades and an almost perfect GPA from Mohave Community College, I got a full ride scholarship to USC. I will however have to work a couple of jobs to pay my portion of rent and food/entertainment. LA is an expensive city to live in. It's even more costly when your roommate is Alice.

Charlie, my dad, is my rock. I don't know where I'd be with out him. Five years ago, I was sent to live with him when my mom lost custody of me. It would have been the best thing that ever happened to me…if I wasn't constantly worrying about Renee.

It was a gigantic blessing for both of us actually, when I went to live with him in Lake Havasu City. He was lacking in all areas cleanliness and edible provisions. I got to take care of him for the last five years before moving here. Getting in Alice's car yesterday and saying goodbye to Charlie was so far the hardest thing I've had to do in my short life.

I had to come here though. I have to break out of my comfort zone. I need to get my mom some remedy to her perverse consumptions. I want to get my Bachelor degree and I want to be with my friends. I want to support Jake and see every football game.

There were too many reasons not to come. I had to let go of Charlie. He only lives five hours away. I can get there to see him at least once a month. Beside that fact, Charlie will be driving Billy down to see a couple of Jake's games. It will be hard. I miss him hard already and it has only been about ten hours now.

I hope he is okay. I will be learning slowly and very hard that I can't take care of everyone.

Actually saying goodbye to Charlie was hard for all of us. Jake, Alice, Rose and I are Charlie's family. We all have a brother/sister relationship. I thank God everyday for my little make-shift relatives. Rose, Alice and I are a year older than Jake in School but we stayed back in Havasu, going to MCC while we waited for him to graduate. And when he got accepted to USC, we all had to follow. Poor Jake got stuck with the three of us and sometimes I think he seriously wonders what the hell he did in another life to deserve this punishment now.

I have known Jake all my life. We grew up together there in Lake Havasu. He's even had the pleasure of knowing the sane, competent version of Renee. Before she went nuts and fucked over Charlie. When they split and I was forced away from my comfortable life to move to Phoenix with my crazy, asshole mother--who unfortunately for me, I happen to love with all my heart--Jake always drove down with some older Native American 'brother' to visit me. He loves me. He loves all of us. In a best friend, sisterly, platonic soul mate kind of way.

Of course I get along with Jake the easiest because he's a guy and we have the most in common. If he wasn't my brother, I would marry the bastard and pop out his children. He is the most wonderful human being on this planet.

Alice and Rose are more dramatic. Before they came along, I only had guy friends. High School girls suck. Girls in general suck. They're too hard to survive, so I gave up in middle school.

I met Alice the first day I attended Lake Havasu High School our sophomore year when I moved back in with Charlie. Surprisingly we instantly hit it off as best friends. Alice can be very down to earth and chill. She is not catty and retarded like normal girls. She got along with me which is more than any other female could say. I let her stick around.

Plus she is so little and beautiful. I love her. She helps me the most to break out of my shell and not be afraid to be myself—even if she is the most annoying person of all time while doing it. I probably should thank her more often for her infuriating habits.

My little fearless, pixie, bitchy friend. But God, I love her.

We were both new to the school that year but had very different backgrounds. Alice is from a very wealthy prominent family from Los Angeles. Alice wanted to have a normal high school experience so she moved to Lake Havasu to live with her aunt and uncle. Even though she wanted as normal of life as possible--she is still very worldly when it comes to money, clothes and cars. She drove me around high school in the new little expensive toys she would coerce her poor father into buying her. Alice is obsessed with designers, hair and make up, and boys…something she is required to share with Rose because I am uninterested in all of the above.

I love Alice but I often have to tell her thanks but no thanks to her complicated girly ways. She tends to love going overboard with my simplicity. For her sake (and mine) I keep up toned muscles and small enough clothes sizes for her approval. She is not afraid to tell me if I look bloated that day. I have pretty but boring, brown hair. It is shinny and long enough that Alice doesn't harp about it. I keep it in a messy bun or ponytail most often which drives her crazy but I have to do some things for myself. I wear mascara and eyeliner and sometimes I go crazy and even wear lip gloss.

I have no one to impress really. The human male population holds no interest for me. I wonder sometimes if I'm a lesbian after all. Then I remember that Rosalie Hale and Alice Cullen are my best friends and if Im not attracted to them than I don't have a thing for girls. It's just, after knowing Jake and his friends, my boyfriend/relationship standards are unrealistically high. I have convinced myself and Rose that love is imaginary and most boys, besides Jake and company are man-sluts looking for a piece. I trust none of them.

Rose and I did have human desires during and since high school. We found decent suitors to satisfy our need for the required affection and attention from the opposite sex, though none really held a lasting interest for either of us.

I've never pursued a real relationship. I don't intend to. Good men are few and far between. Most of the ones I know are related to me, even if not biologically.

Oh I believe in soul-mates but I believe I've already found mine in my three best friends. I have never really connected with anyone outside my little niche, nor do I think it's possible to love anyone more.

Poor Rose has had to take the most shit of all of us. Her parent's both died in a car accident when we were fifteen. Rose was sent to live with her dead beat Uncle and grandmother. Because of life insurance policies, social security and her father's investments, Rose is set for life with millions in the bank and growing interest.

Despite her parent's death, Rose had everything going for her. She was brilliant and looked like a supermodel. I remember that she was the one and only girl/woman to ever intimidate me. It was surprisingly refreshing to feel like a normal teenage girl for once. When I didn't know Rose so well, she was unapproachable.

I even remember being jealous of her popularity--when I am supposed to be this hard ass who doesn't give a shit about being liked and popular. Wow, I remember thinking; this beautiful sophomore girl hangs out with senior boys.

Only a short year later after her parents' tragedy, her uncle Royce and his drunken friends caught her off guard and raped her. They left her on the side of the road alone and naked. My dad, Charlie was the policeman who got the call to go get her. I had obviously known of Rosalie from High School, everyone knew of her. I was not well acquainted with her and had had maybe 3 whole conversations with her before I asked her to come live with me and Charlie. I don't know how I persuaded Rose to come stay with us because Rose wanted charity from no one. She really needed a place to stay and I think she must have felt safer living with my dad. Knowing her as well as I do now, she was also most likely intrigued by mine and Charlie's sincerity. It was like she had never met an honest person before. An honest, sincerely caring person who wanted nothing in return from her but for her to be happy and comfortable.

Soon, 'just a little while' turned into a small family unit. Rose and I took care of Charlie. Jake and Alice were over at my house all day, everyday. It was the five of us and often six when Jake's dad and Charlie's good buddy Billy would come over for dinner up to seven nights a week. Our (younger, but) over-protective brother Jake had been multiplied by 1000 when Rose confided her most awful, painful memories to him late one weekend night. Jake and Rose didn't really get along so well on the outside. They fought like actual brother and sister- but their bond was unbreakable. The love all of us four friends had for each other was permanent and unconditional.

So onto USC it was for us all. Where one would go, all would follow. Us girl's hugged & kissed Charlie and Billy goodbye on their cheeks. Jake who had to stay in LA all summer for football practices etcetera, came back to Havasu to say goodbye and drive us to LA. Jake hugged Charlie and his father promising to bring us home in one piece. Alice and I collectively decided to ride together in her BMW in order to torture poor Jake and Rose. They were stuck in Jake's old yellow GT mustang they had restored together. I could tell through rearview mirrors that they had started fighting, yelling and bickering at each other before we even reached the freeway.

One thing Jake and Rose did have in common was they both loved cars, building and supping up cars. Jake and Rose spent a lot of time- silently- building Jake's Mustang. They'd come to a mutual agreement that no talking was aloud while working in order to get anything accomplished.

When we had all met up with Jake in LA a few weeks ago to scout out potential apartments and jobs, Jake and Rose both got a job at Terry's Tow and Toolbox. A small but well-established car repair shop near the University.

Because of Jake's fall football schedule, he'd only be working minimal part time hours to pay for food and entertainment. While Rose, on the other hand took it as an opportunity to intern with the other guys…even though she thinks the only reason she was hired was because of her long blond hair, legs for days, big boobs, and more than perfect facial components. In actuality, Rose has more talent and intuition with the cars, than more than half the men in Terry's shop. Terry recognized her aptitude for the cars when she came in applying for the job with Jake. She clicked her tall, dangerous looking shoes over to the car a repair dude, Tyler, was tuning and just looked under the hood with her arms folded. Thirty seconds later, she tightened a valve here, rubbed some caps off to clean them there, changed a much needed filter and loosened a too-tight belt all in about two minutes and not a spot of grease on her. Jacob told me about this car that none of Terry's guys could get to start for a week sparked right up and she was hired.

Terry was a little nervous about hiring someone who would wear high heels to the garage but in the end he decided it might help his business more than hurt it.

Alice being in the vicinity of her much missed mom, dad and brother wasn't really in need of a job. Her dad would take care of her finances and increased allowances--she was now again living in a higher cost of expenditures that the beautiful California had to offer. I heard her on the phone several times before leaving manipulating her dad into getting her a higher credit limit on her credit card. She got a new silver and blue, see-though card the day we all arrived at the house.

The house that Alice also manipulated us all into living in.

I should have guessed her underhanded motives when she had several of her dad's employees come up to Havasu with a big moving truck 3 days ago, packing our rooms and supplies in the big automobile. The automobile in which she so selflessly sacrificed her last few days with her aunt and uncle driving back to LA and unpacking for us so Rose and I could get some much needed last minute time with Charlie and work. I needed as much money as I could get saved up before school. I felt bad and grateful to Alice then. After realizing what a fool I was, I knew to be very weary about anything Alice did in the future.

Rose and I both were still uncomfortable with this kind of charity offered my Mrs. and Mr. Cullen. We promised each other to some how make it up to Carlisle and not take anything for granted. We had yet to meet any of Alice's family members in person so we were wondering why they would extend such welcome and kindness to us. Rose and I still have issues when people offer something for nothing.

Alice had kept immaculate contact with all of her family members throughout the years she'd been away. I have spoken to Esme and Carlisle on the phone so many times that I already feels like I've known Esme all my life. But this was just a lot to give someone you really barely knew.

Usually the conversations I had with Esme would end with her insisting that I was the perfect girl for her older son. I felt bad after but I would ultimately end up telling Esme things she wanted to hear in order to get her off the phone.

These matchmaking notions were completely and annoyingly followed up by the damn little butthead, Alice. I, being the semi-pessimistic, self proclaimed wallflower, gave up trying to explain I didn't want a relationship right now. I just can't see myself getting serious with anyone. Ever. Especially considering all the classes I will be attending in the near future.

As far as academics themselves, we had all tried to finish most of our generals in college at MCC-Mohave Community College before Jake graduated from high school a year after us. Rose had her Associates degree already because she was motivated, ambitious and diligent. I had mine because I was bored and Rose was always busy.

Alice was brilliant by all standards but she was motivated by other interests entirely. Fashion, interior, graphic, anything that had to do with the word design, provoked Alice. Everything always came very easily to her. I keep telling her that most things in life that are worthwhile in life, take a lot of hard work to obtain. I am afraid for her when she will have to face that concept the hard way.

Here we are, I thought as I unpacked the boxes and hung up my clothes in the room Esme and Alice designed for me. We're starting our new lives. Starting fresh. I hope this works out. I hope we're all ok after this is over.

Please review. I need advice. Instead of student driver, I am a student writer. Hi.