AN: Hello everyone! All right, this is my first Twilight story and I just had to make it about Alice and Jasper. They're my all time favorite couple. In this story, everyone is human and they all live in Forks, except for Alice, who is running away from Chicago. Also, I'm going to go ahead and apologize if some details are wrong, I've never been to Washington State in my life, so if something's wrong about Seattle or Port Angeles, I'm sorry. I hope you enjoy the story and please review!

Chapter 1: New Life, New Friend

The city of Chicago was a very noisy place at any hour of the day. Those who lived in the suburbs were very lucky to have a relatively peaceful lifestyle. The majority of the population loved their city, but for one young girl, she wanted nothing more than to get out as fast as she possibly could.

Her name was Alice Brandon. She had lived in Chicago her entire life and she had always loved it, but for the last eighteen months, it had gone from being a wonderful city to being her own personal hell. Because in those eighteen months, her father had walked out on his own family, and her mother had turned to alcohol just to deal with the stress of having to support her daughter on her own. Alice ended up having to support herself. Her father had said when he left that he wanted nothing more to do with either of them, and she still wasn't sure why he had said that. As far as she knew, neither her nor her mother had done anything wrong. But apparently they had or he wouldn't have left. She remembered that day as though it were yesterday.

She had been sitting in the living room all afternoon doing her homework, instead of shopping at the Miracle Mile like she wanted to be. But she knew if she wanted to keep her allowance, she had to keep her grades up. But she couldn't really concentrate on her books. Her parents had been arguing a lot recently, more than they had done in months. She looked up when she heard yelling coming from the hallway. Curiosity got the better of her as she got up to see what was going on. The sight that met her eyes instantly worried her. Her father was dragging a suitcase down the stairs, her mother right behind him, crying and begging him to change his mind.

"I said no, Meredith!" said her father. "I'm not staying in this house another second!"

"Please James, you can't just leave us!" said her mother. "On my salary, I'm not going to be able to keep this house for very long."

"It's not my fault you have a dead end job," said James. "You rely on me too much. I've always had to pay for everything around here! I pay the bills, I pay for school tuition, I've paid for every damn thing!"

"What about Alice?" asked Meredith. "I can't support Alice on my own. She's your daughter too."

"I want nothing more to do with either of you," said James. "I hate it here, I hate you! I've gotten a new job offer that takes me far away from here, and I'm going to take it. You're getting sole custody of Alice. Maybe this'll teach you both how to be responsible!"

And with that, he just slammed the door right in their faces. He hadn't even bothered to say goodbye to his own daughter. Alice just stood there, paralyzed, waiting for her mother to say something that might remedy the situation. But her mother just shook her head, saying to her daughter that there was nothing she could do. Alice started breathing very heavily, trying to make sense out of the whole situation, but she couldn't understand it. She'd always loved her father, she couldn't see why he'd suddenly walk out on them. She knew he'd been bitter for a few years about having to do everything himself, and he'd been lecturing her constantly on how she spent way too much money every time she went shopping, but she didn't think he'd get so fed up with them that he'd just leave.

"Alice," began her mother, but she didn't want to hear it. She ran up to her room and locked the door, and she didn't come out for the rest of the night.

For the next eighteen months, she struggled to support herself while her mother started drinking. Soon after her father left, they'd moved into a smaller house that didn't cost nearly as much money as the other one. They'd had just enough money for her to finish her junior year of high school and after that she wasn't sure what she was going to do. College wasn't an option, not with the financial situation being what it was. Besides, she had to look after her mother all the time, so much in fact that she was beginning to hate her own daughter. She'd come home late at night, drunk as a dog and would start shouting at Alice in a voice loud enough to wake the dead.

One night, Alice was just lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering what the heck she was going to do with her life.

"Why didn't I see any of this coming?" she thought to herself. She meant that literally, because she did have a sort of foresight. Her hunches were stronger than most people's, so when she said something was going to happen, nine times out of ten, it did happen. But she'd never gotten the idea that her father would just leave, nor that her mother would start drinking heavily. She also hadn't expected what had happened early that evening.

She was making a late dinner for herself, having just gotten home from one of three jobs she was having to work to support herself. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd been shopping and it was driving her completely insane. She looked over at the clock and saw that it was getting to be about 10:00 p.m. She wondered where her mother was. Normally, she'd be at some bar, coming in at this hour would be a pretty rare occurrence. However, she was just cleaning up the kitchen after dinner when her mother came in. It was now 10:15. A rare occurrence, but not an impossible one.

"Hey Mom," said Alice, in a falsely upbeat voice. "How was your day?"

"Why do you care?" asked her mother rudely. "Oh right, you're my chaperone, aren't you? You always have to know what is I'm doing every hour of the day. That's starting to get on my nerves, you know. I'm the one who's supposed to take care of you."

"Well, you don't do a very good job of that, do you?" asked Alice. "If you did, you'd be working three jobs and you wouldn't be drinking so much every night."

"Don't use that tone with me, Mary Alice Brandon," said her mother warningly. "If there's one thing you need to learn, it's how to respect your elders."

"That's one thing you and Father never really taught me," said Alice. She'd stopped calling him, "Dad" months before. "He said I should learn to be more responsible. That's all I've been ever since he left."

"I thought I told you never to mention him!"

"You can't boss me around anymore Mother! With the condition you're in, I'd say I'm more in a position to be the boss of you!"

"Why you insolent little brat!" And before Alice had a chance to comment, her mother had slapped her right across the face. That left the girl speechless. Her mother had never hit her before. She rubbed her cheek tenderly, already feeling it start to swell up a bit.

"Get out of my house," said Meredith, in a dangerously calm, very sober voice.

"W…What?" stuttered Alice.

"You heard me, get out of my house," repeated Meredith. Alice, not knowing what else to do, ran up to her room and locked the door, before collapsing on her bed and crying. Her mother had never said that before, never treated her that indecently before. She couldn't imagine what had brought all this on. It wasn't just the alcohol, her mother wasn't nearly as drunk as she normally was when she came in. She really meant it, she wanted her own daughter to leave.

Alice finally ran out of tears to cry after an hour and a half. She rolled over and stared up at the ceiling of her room, trying to figure out what she was going to do with her life. She was brought back to Earth when she heard her clock beeping. She turned to look at it and saw that it was midnight. With a jolt, she also realized that it was now her 18th birthday.

"All right Alice," she thought to herself. "What do you want for your birthday?"

She knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted to leave. She didn't know where she was going to go, she just knew she had to get out. She got up and quietly went out around the room, gathering all her clothes and her most valued possessions. Because she hadn't been shopping in so long, she didn't have nearly as many clothes as she used to. Some of her old things she'd given away to Goodwill when they moved; she didn't have room for it in her new room. She folded all her clothes and managed to fit them all in one large duffle bag. The rest of her possessions she put in a travelling case, then she made sure her cell phone, her wallet and her Ipod were all in her purse. She then began to write a letter to her mother, telling her that she was leaving and not coming back. All she had to do now was wait for the bank to open in the morning, then go and withdraw all the money from her account. Once all her things were packed, she laid back in bed and waited for morning to come.

When she got up later that morning, she made sure she had all her things and then put on a pair of jeans and a pale blue blouse. As she finished getting ready, she caught herself in the mirror and gave herself a good long look. She had changed from the girl she'd been eighteen months ago. Back then, she'd been perky and upbeat, with a sparkle in her eye and a smile always on her face. She hadn't smiled in months and her eyes had lost the shine they once had. She'd lost weight too. She couldn't afford a car, so she was constantly running from job to job, taking a cab when she had enough money for it. All she ever ate for breakfast were a couple pieces of toast or a bowl of cereal, she didn't have time for lunch, and she just ate a small microwave dinner at night. It was enough to keep her going, but she was beginning to get very weak and tired from it. Her reflection only told her more that she was doing the right thing.

At about 8:45, she left the house and started for the bank. If she walked quickly, she could make it just after it opened at 9:00. As she reached the end of the street, she turned around and looked back at her house. Her mother wasn't up yet, probably sleeping off whatever she'd drunk after yelling at her own daughter. That house held nothing but sadness for her, not like their old house, which held all the happiness she'd ever felt, aside from that one day when everything changed. She turned around and started to walk back up the street, not looking back at the ghosts of her past again.

She reached the bank a few minutes after it opened, but when she asked for all her money, the clerk gave her a strange look.

"Please, I don't have time, just withdraw all the money and close my account," she requested.

"If you insist," said the clerk, bringing up Alice's account information. After a few minutes, $1,100 in cash was sitting in her wallet, all her savings from eighteen months of work at three small jobs. She wished she'd had more money to spend on her getaway, but she'd had to spend most of it to help pay the bills. She took a cab to the airport and tried to decide where she should go from there.

"I could go to New York," she thought. "But that would remind me too much of Chicago. Someplace small might be a good idea. I could go to San Francisco, that's far away and I could do a good bit of shopping. But that's still a really big town and there are tons of small places around it. Really, it would remind a lot of Chicago too." She was about to give up and randomly pick a place, but then one flight caught her eye. There was a plane to Seattle leaving in an hour and a half. There were tons of places she could go in Washington State, tons of small towns. She could find a place to live there.

Fresh determination burned in her eyes as she went up to the desk, bought a one-way ticket to Seattle and checked her duffle bag. It cost about a fifth of her money, but she didn't care, as long as this plane got her away from her mother and from this city. She sat in one of airport restaurants and ate brunch, though she wasn't nearly as hungry as she thought she'd be. Nerves and anxiety were beginning to overtake her.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she said silently. "I'm leaving the only life I've ever known and going somewhere to build myself a new life. What if I don't find someplace to live? What if I never finish my education? What if I never find a new family or someone to love me? No, I can't think like that. This is the right thing to do. I just need to find a place to go once I arrive in Seattle. Everything will be great, I know it."

When it was finally time to board, she took a deep breath and handed her boarding pass to the person at the desk. She walked with her head held high onto the plane, though with every step, her heart beat faster out of nerves. She found her seat and tried to lug her travelling case into the overhead bin, but she was too short. She'd always been called a pixie because of her stature; she didn't even come up to five feet. She tried to reach the compartment, but her fingertips only brushed the bottom edge.

"Do you want some help, Miss?" asked a polite voice. She turned around to see the most handsome man she'd ever laid eyes on standing right behind her. He had wild, dark blonde hair that fell over his beautiful, blue eyes, eyes that seemed to stare right into her very soul. This was the only time in her life she could think of when she'd been struck speechless. She was only able to nod her head, and he gave her a breathtaking smile. He took her bag for her and effortlessly placed it in the corner of the compartment.

She mumbled, "thanks," and took the window seat. She was both surprised and delighted that he took the seat next to her. For several minutes, she gazed out the plane window, not able to find a thing to say to the god sitting next to her. When it was time for takeoff, she gripped the arm rest and closed her eyes tight shut against the reality of what she was doing.

"Nervous flier?" asked the blonde beside her.

"Not exactly," she replied, shaking her head a little bit. After a few minutes, she got the courage to open her eyes again and looked out the window. Chicago stretched out for miles below her, the skyscrapers, the streets, the Mississippi River, all of it now soaring away from her, or rather she was soaring away from it. The reality of what she'd just done dawned on her and she began breathing very heavily, her heart and lungs constricting inside her chest, tearful sobs threatening to break forth.

"Are you all right?" asked the blonde in a worried voice. She turned to face him and saw concern written all over his features, an emotion she hadn't seen directed towards her in almost two years.

"I'm fine," she stammered, trying to get a grip on herself.

"Are you sure? Do you want some water?"

"No thank you," she said, taking several deep breaths.

She felt a hand on her hand and she looked down to see him holding her hand tightly in his. His other hand came up to lightly touch her shoulder and she could feel him rub circles into her back.

"Just breathe," he whispered. "In and out. Everything's all right, I promise."

Slowly, she felt herself calm down. He held her hand and comforted her until her breathing returned to normal and she felt she had control over herself.

"Thank you," she said gratefully.

He nodded at her and said, "you're welcome."

They sat in silence for a minute before she realized that he was still holding her hand. She looked down at their two hands and he followed her gaze.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, blushing furiously.

"It's okay," she said, smiling and blushing shyly, turning back to the plane window.

"I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself," he said after a minute. He held out his hand and said, "Jasper Hale."

She took it and said, "Alice Brandon. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you Alice," he said. She looked away, slightly afraid of the look he was giving her. It wasn't anything really to be scared of, but to her, it was unusual. He looked at her as though he was beginning to like her, as though he genuinely cared for her, something that she hadn't felt in a long time.

After another moment of silence, he asked, "do you mind if I ask what was wrong just now?"

Alice hesitated. She wasn't sure she wanted to spill her guts to a complete stranger, but one look in those eyes told her she couldn't say no. "I'm leaving Chicago for the first time in my life. I'm going to Washington to make a fresh start. I guess it was the first time I'd honestly realized what I was doing. It's a little scary leaving the only place I've ever known."

"Why are you leaving then?" he asked, confused.

"It's…because…it's difficult to explain."

"Okay, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She appreciated the fact that he didn't push the issue any further.

"So what's in Seattle for you?" she asked him.

"I'm on my way home," he replied. "I live in this little town called Forks, a few hours outside Seattle. My sister's meeting me at the airport and we're going to have dinner with a few friends tonight."

"Oh," said Alice, unable to find anything else to say to that.

Jasper looked down at her, confusion and worry still clouding his mind. "She's been through a lot, I can tell by the circles around her eyes," he thought to himself. "She's too young to have lines like that around her face. I want to help her, but what could I possibly do?"

Suddenly, a thought came to him. He asked her, "so, what exactly are you going to do once you get to Seattle?"

Alice seemed startled at the question. She'd been so eager to get out of Chicago that she hadn't even thought far enough ahead to decide what she was going to do once she left.

"I…I don't know. I'll think of something," she muttered.

"Why don't you come with me?" he asked out of the blue, surprising himself. "Rosalie, that's my sister, she's a really good cook, good person, good friend. She can take care of you, help you get settled in. And I'll be there in case you need something. You have to face it, you need more than a plan, you need some friends."

Alice was shocked by the offer. She desperately wanted to say yes, but she knew that wasn't a good idea. She hardly knew this guy, for all she knew, he could be trying to set her up or something. She said, "that's very sweet of you, but no thanks. I wouldn't want to impose on you or cause you any trouble."

"No trouble at all," he said. "I think Rosalie would be glad to have another girl in the house."

"I'll think about it," said Alice, but she knew she wouldn't go with him, even though she wanted to spend as much time with him as she could.

He nodded and said, "tell me if you change your mind."

They spent the rest of the plane ride chatting, talking about their childhoods. Jasper even told Alice about some of his friends.

"Rosalie has a best friend, Isabella Swan," he said. "She prefers to be called Bella though. Then there are my two friends, Edward and Emmett Cullen. Edward and Bella are a couple, and Emmett and Rosalie are a couple. I've kind of been the odd one out in our group, you know what I'm saying?" Alice nodded.

"Don't worry," she said. "I'm sure you'll find someone before too long."

Jasper gave her a strange look at that moment. It was like he was asking her if she was really seeing him or if she had picked up on what he was saying. She chose to brush it off and say that it was her imagination playing tricks on her. All the same, she wasn't sure why she was getting a hunch about this guy, a hunch that said he was the perfect guy for her.

So what was an almost four hour long plane ride only felt like a few minutes to Alice. She had such fun talking with Jasper that she didn't know where the time had gone. She'd also forgotten that they'd gained a few hours due to the time difference, so she reminded herself to check the time in the airport as soon as she saw a clock.

When they had landed and reached the gate, Jasper reached up and got Alice's bag out of the overhead bin for her. He walked with her to the terminal and they began walking towards baggage claim.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like to come to Forks with Rosalie and I?" he asked.

"I didn't say I didn't want to, it's just that I'm not sure I can," she said.

"What do you mean, of course you can," he said confused.

"It's just that…I don't know how to explain it," she said. She just wasn't sure she was ready to be welcomed into a family, if Rosalie was going to welcome her at all. After what she had been through the last eighteen months, a real family would be nice, but she had to get herself straightened out first.

"At least let me introduce you to Rosalie," said Jasper.

"Okay," said Alice, thinking that was reasonable.

They walked through the terminal together, chatting aimlessly until they reached the area that was baggage claim. Alice looked through the crowd and saw a girl waving at them, or more likely, waving at Jasper. She had long, very curly blonde hair, the same shade as his, the same blue eyes and a figure that any girl would kill for. Just looking at her made Alice's already low self-esteem take a major plummet.

"That's Rosalie," said Jasper, and Alice felt herself backing away from him.

"Oh my god," she said silently. "I can't go over there looking like this, talking to that girl who looks like she could be on the cover of Vogue. I don't belong here, I don't belong with them, I need to go someplace else."

She began to see if she could escape from the two of them without being noticed. Thankfully, she saw how things could work in her favor quickly. Another plane had gotten in at the same time as hers, so a crowd of people were coming down a nearby escalator. Jasper walked quickly over to greet his sister and they were so glad to see each other that neither of them noticed Alice slip quietly into the throng of people heading for baggage claim. The suitcases from the flight from Chicago were already being rolled onto the conveyor belt, and she spotted her duffel bag easily. She grabbed it and began walking towards the exit, wondering if she could rent a car, but then realizing, she didn't have her driver's license. Her parents had never had time to give her lessons, and her father had refused to pay for someone to teach her. It was too expensive to book another flight, so she wondered if she could find a bus that would take her to a new place.

Suddenly, she heard a shout of, "Alice!" She turned back around and saw Jasper walking over to the conveyor belt to get his suitcase, Rosalie behind him, both obviously looking for her, but she didn't want them to see her. She hurriedly rushed out the door and found a shuttle that would take her to a city called Port Angeles, a couple hours away. She boarded the bus and quickly paid the bus driver. As she took a seat, she counted what money she had left and prayed it would be enough to get her a hotel room for a couple nights until she found a place to stay.

As the bus was preparing to leave, she heard another shout of, "Alice!" She looked out the window and saw Jasper and Rosalie dashing outside the building. Rosalie headed for the parking garage, but Jasper didn't follow her. He was looking frantically around the entrance. Alice shrank down in her seat, suddenly dreading the fact that she'd picked a window seat right next to the terminal entrance. She kept her eyes closed and prayed he wouldn't see her, but her wish didn't come true.

"Alice!" Jasper yelled again. She looked up and saw him running towards the bus she was on. At that very moment, the bus began to move away from the curb and pull into traffic.

"Alice, wait!" She knew Jasper was causing a scene at the entrance to the airport, but she got the feeling that he didn't care. She took one last look at him as the bus rounded the corner. The look of hurt in his eyes was far greater than any she'd ever seen. She could tell just by looking at him that he was trying to figure out why she'd run away from him, but she couldn't bring herself to ask the bus driver to stop. She just turned around and tried to block the image of Jasper's sorrowful expression out of her mind.

The two and a half hour drive to Port Angeles felt like a lifetime to Alice. She pulled out a book and tried to concentrate on it, but she just kept staring out the window. Listening to her Ipod didn't do much good either. She just gazed at nothing, wondering why Jasper had had such a pained expression on his face.

"He couldn't possibly care for me, could he?" Alice asked herself. "No, he couldn't. I mean, come on, we just met. There's no way he or anyone could have feelings for me anymore. I have to admit though, I like him. He's so kind and so polite, a real gentleman. Not to mention that I've never seen anyone that handsome! He was just stunning. But I'm going to have to forget about him. I'll probably never see him again anyway."

All the same, she hoped that she'd meet up with him again someday and maybe then, she wouldn't run away when she saw Rosalie. That girl was too beautiful for hers and everyone else's own good.

When the bus stopped in Port Angeles, Alice took several minutes to look around the city and try and get a feel for it. Whether she liked it or not, this city was now her home. She stood on the sidewalk and just gazed at the different buildings. It was a nice medium sized city, not a large, bustling metropolis like Chicago was. But it wasn't very small either, and probably would provide her with some good places to shop, once she got her hands on enough money to spend on a shopping spree.

For one moment, her mind flashed back to all the happy times she'd spent in Chicago before her father left. She'd always been such a hyper, very active little thing, but the last eighteen months had made her lose her chipper edge. She was now a sad, young girl with no future. But she was determined to build a new life for herself.

Her eyes glazed over a little bit as a chill ran down her spine. Something bad was going to happen today. She didn't know what or who would be involved, but she did know that whatever it was, it wasn't likely to have a good outcome.

"I have to find someplace safe," she said aloud.

The problem was that she had no idea where to go that was safe. Finally, she stopped a man on the streets and asked for directions to the nearest hotel. She kept saying the directions to herself over and over again, but she easily got lost. A rumbling sound from overhead made her look up at the sky. Dark gray rainclouds were forming over the city and she sighed as she knew a storm was coming.

"Just my luck for deciding to move to the rainiest place in the continental US," she thought.

She kept moving but stopped when she saw two men walking towards her, with looks on their faces that sent several shivers down her spine. These two were dangerous. She turned around and began to walk the other way, but they followed her. She sped up, so did they. Every time she made a move to speed up or slow down, they did the same. Thinking she could slip away from them and hide, she ducked into a nearby alley and looked for a few barrels to hide behind, an advantage of being so small. Unfortunately for her, there was nothing. She began to run, her duffel bag banging against her hip as she ran down the alley and turned into another one. She could hear the footsteps of the two men behind her, which made her run even faster. She looked behind her and saw that they were gaining on her, smiling triumphantly. She turned back around and skidded to a stop, nearly avoiding colliding with a brick wall. She'd reached a dead end. She slowly turned around, breathing heavily, watching as the two thugs closed in on her.

"What were you running from?" asked the first one, in a voice of mock hurt. "I hope it wasn't from us."

"Yeah," said the second. "We aren't gonna hurt you."

But she knew better. She knew what they were going to do just by looking at the fiendish looks in their eyes.

"Please leave me alone," she said, trying to be brave, but she couldn't help the fact that the statement came out as a whimper of fear.

Both men laughed cruelly. "Aww, the little girl is scared," said the first one.

"Well we can't have that, now can we?" asked the second. "Why don't you come with us?"

"No," said Alice, very defiantly.

"Why not?" asked the first, reaching out to touch her shoulder.

"Don't touch me," said Alice, backing away from him, right up against the brick wall.

"Come on," said the second. "A pretty little thing like you shouldn't be out here anyway. You should be inside where it's warm and cozy." She hated the suggestive tone he was using towards her.

"Yeah what he said," said the other. "Just come on and don't worry about a thing." This time he full out grabbed her by the arm.

"Let go of me!" she yelled, trying to kick him where it hurt. But the other one had grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the ground. Considering both of them were at least a foot and a half taller than she was, she knew fighting them off would be next to impossible. She struggled, but he only laughed at her feeble attempts to get away. She did the only thing she could do and screamed at the top of her lungs, "HELP!"

This just made the two rogues laugh even more. "No one's gonna hear you, girl."

"HELP!" she yelled again. It was beginning to annoy the two men surrounding her.

"Shut up!" said the one holding her around the waist forcefully. She ignored him and screamed again.

"Shut up!" said the other one, grabbing her from his friend's arms, which hurt her more than she thought it would. Before she could try and fight him off, he'd slammed his fist against the side of her head, causing her to see stars.

"No!" came a voice from the other end of the alley. "Let her go!"

The man turned around to face whoever it was, dropping Alice out of surprise. She hit the ground very hard, hitting her head again. She was beginning to lose consciousness now, the last thing she saw before fading away was a girl standing over her, with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She knew those looks anywhere, which meant that a certain blonde-headed boy couldn't be too far away.

She managed to rasp out, "Jasper," before the darkness completely closed in on her.

AN: Well, that's the first chapter down. I'm not sure chapter titles and headings are going to work for this story, though I use them for all my stories. If y'all have any constructive criticism, tell me please. I love hearing what other people have to say about my stories. I'll have the next chapter up soon!