I do not own Twilight or claim to own any characters. Though I wish I did.

It was perfect weather out; grey sky for as far as you could see, cloud and no sun in sight. When I say perfect I mean perfect for a vampire. The fact that Forks was covered in a near constant cover of cloud meant that we could integrate quite simply with normal life. Carlisle's job at the hospital was one of the main reasons why we were grounded in Forks at the moment. His caring and nurturing nature (opposite to almost every other vampire that existed) led him to becoming the best doctor around. Though unbeknown to most, it was his vampire assets that also helped him to become such a good doctor – the sense of smell being one of them, allowing him to be able to smell abnormal substances in the blood of patients for example. I know what people must think (if they knew that is) – a vampire as a Doctor around blood at all times, how does he cope? Well the thing that makes our family so special – we see ourselves as vegetarians. Yet again another inside joke.

My family is different to others of our kind; we only feed on animal blood. I'm not going to lie it was a challenge at first; I never thought that I'd be able to satisfy the burn in my throat, but after a while it dies down. That is one of the other reasons that also apparently brought us here to Forks – the wildlife. The forest around town provides us with enough cover to be able to feed when needed, and provides the meal also – though there is only so much deer you can drink without becoming bored. We venture further from town now and again, Carlisle ensures that we visit reservations with overcrowding so not to draw attention to the flux in numbers – recently it's been mountain lion on the menu. Which is always fun - they put up more of a fight.

As I sat letting my mind wander – which seems to happen allot more nowadays, I found the silence in my usually buzzing thoughts interrupted. Though when it became clear whose thoughts they were – my lips pulled up into a smile.

"Bells – we're back. Miss me?" Emmett. My favourite adopted brother had been on his third honeymoon with wife Rosalie for the past month, running through Europe. He bounded up to me like a faithful dog would to his owner and pulled me into his bear like arms for a hug. When I say bear like, it's exactly what I mean - Emmett is huge. He is by far the strongest in our family, broad, muscular, tall and burly – intimidating to anyone who didn't know him. Though when you do know him you realise that he is sweet, loving and the jokester within our family, and would fight to the death for Rosalie.

"Emmett! Of course I did...though I didn't miss being crushed when hugged." I joked, as he put me down. He stepped back to look at me as if he was looking for something to be wrong.

"You don't seem to look to bad Bells; I think Alice must have been exaggerating on the phone, I mean she said..." I stopped him with a glare, of course Alice had told them about my brooding.

"Yes? What did Alice say on the phone? Come on, if it's about me I have the right to know don't you think? It's not like they haven't been talking about me behind my back is it?" I tapped my temple as I spoke, knowing full well that Emmett would understand that I had seen their concern in their minds, and that I'd soon read his if he didn't tell me. Ever since the slip they never left me alone for long. Never let me go hunting by myself either just in case, so I knew they must have been feeling anxious about our return to school this year. It's not like we have never been to high school, this has got to be my tenth time at least repeating it. All to keep up with the Cullen facade. The children of our family all looked at high school/college age so that is what we have to do in able to fit in. An annoying trait of being a Cullen, yet a necessary one.

"She just said that you were a bit down, I told her it was because she was missing her favourite brother..." he said with a cheeky grin and a wink "...but you know Alice that's not all she said. She thinks you're going into a state of depression, ever since well you know..." he trailed off into his thoughts almost forgetting that I couldn't read them as simply as an open book.

Ever since the slip.

Even as he thought it he lifted his hands to make quotation marks over slip.

"Emmett you know, that that was all that was. It's not going to happen again. I mean even you had a slip on more than one occasion if I can remember rightly, which I'm sure that I can." In the midst of our conversation, I hadn't realised that Rosalie had walked into the room until I had spun around and walked straight into her, something that I hadn't done to someone since I was my old clumsy human self. And that was a long time ago.

"Nice to see you too Bella." Rosalie looked down at me with what looked like disgust for walking straight on into her, but her face soon relaxed and she gave me a smile. Rosalie was radiant. Carlisle had turned her into a vampire when he had found her left for dead out in the cold after being attacked by her fiancé and his so called friends. When she was human she was Rosalie Hale; a woman of elegance, class and beauty. Now that she is Rosalie Cullen she is exceptionally beautiful, tall, and statuesque and has long wavy blonde hair that anyone would be jealous of. Anyone she meets seems to have the breath knocked out of them at the sight of her, and she never fails to notice.

"Rosalie, hi. How was Europe?" I smiled up to her politely as she pulled me into a hug. I didn't get off to the best of starts with Rosalie when she joined our family. Don't get me wrong it wasn't a jealousy thing, it just seemed as though with her beauty she was too obvious, she would stand out. When people realised she had gone missing –she'd be too easy to spot. I just didn't want my family to be in any danger, at risk. She also didn't get on too well with me either; she took my worry as resentment towards her. Though Carlisle tried to ensure that there was no love lost between the pair of us, it took us a while to straighten things out.

"It was beautiful Bella, the scenery, the hotels, but the best – the clothes! England has the best fashion I have ever seen. The malls aren't quite as good – but the clothes are gorgeous." Typical Rosalie, fashion on the mind at all times.

"Yes so good that it deemed necessary for us to have six boxes of new clothes shipped here, in the upcoming week." Emmett chuckled; he had learnt to let Rosalie have what she wanted to an extent, no one got in her way when it came to fashion. I had never had the want to dress myself up in the latest fashion or high range of clothing. Yet when Alice came along, I didn't have a choice. For she is a force not to be messed with.

Hmm, I wonder where Jasper is...

"He's out back with Alice" I said turning to face Emmett, "I think I'm going to go for a drive, clear my head before tomorrow."

"Want me to come with you Bells? I mean I haven't seen you in a month, you know time to catch up, I can tell you about Europe..."

"No Emmett its fine, really. Catch up with Jasper, I'll see you when I get back." And with that I flew out the back door and into the extensive garage. I went straight past Alice's canary yellow Porsche, Emmett's jeep and Rosalie's convertible, and stopped at my motorbike. I swung my leg over the seat, shoved the key in the ignition and I was off, flying down the road wind in my hair. Shooting down the freeway like I was on a red bullet. It's the only way that I can feel free now. Only way that I can stand this life, this existence, this empty shell.

Writers note:
So that's the second chapter done. Didn't really know where I was going with this chapter as I just wanted to introduce some more of the characters surrounding Bella. Still have no idea where to take the story either – so ideas are welcome. Please suggest to others, and please please please review.

Thanks, Emma