A New World

By Girldownunder

Jemma Rhodes is my character & SM owns all the others. Please note: I am Australian and use Australian spelling in my writing.

Chapter 1

Jemma's P.O.V:

The cold air hit my face as I stepped out of the car, I cringed bringing my glove-clad hands to my face.

"This is ridiculous mum, frigging ridiculous I am never ever forgiving you!"

Okay, I was being a tad melodramatic. In all fairness though, being dragged across the world away from my friends, warmth and the sunshine because my dad "needed a change", was not my idea of fair.

I was nearly 18 God dammit; as soon as my birthday came round I was out of here! Just less than 3 months to go, it's nearly December and my birthday is at the end of February.

"Jemma stop whinging for Gods sake."

I suddenly felt bad as I looked at mum's tired face.

It had been a mammoth few days of flights from Australia to the States, and then yet more flights to get to Forks, Washington State.

"Fuck Jem, give it a rest, we are all tired so, lets just get inside to dad so we can go get some sleep hey?"

My twin brother, Bryce roughly chucked his arm around my shoulders and with his free hand and rubbed the top of my head, messing up my neat ponytail.

"Ok, ok" I agreed as we walked up the concrete steps into Forks police station, or sheriffs' office, as they call it here.

My dad, Len had come a month ahead of us, to start his job as a Deputy, get a house sorted and all that jazz.

I had laughed when mum and dad had sat Bryce and me down, and told us dad wanted to do a job exchange and move to America.

Bryce was ecstatic, I think he expected it to be just like the movies, all gangster and shit but I was not at all happy, usually B and I are on the same wavelength.

I had thought they were joking or the idea would pass but, obviously not.

They had told us, once we turned 18 we could do what we please and move back to the land down under, until then we had to go with them once we finished grade 12.

Mum had tried to justify it by saying "You don't know what you want to do with your lives anyway, consider it a gap year before uni, see the world, make some decisions and then come home."

So here I was, a little warmer in the Sheriffs office, my dad looked up and gave such a brilliant smile that I couldn't help but feel a little glad to see him. He hurried over, from what must be his desk, and gave my mum a huge hug and then pulled Bryce and me into the warm embrace.

Once dad let go of us, the tour began, he showed us every nook and cranny of the station.

10 minutes later, we were back in the front, the door opened and in strolled a dark haired man, who I could only assume was the Sheriff.

"Naomi, Bryce, Jemma… This is Charlie, Charlie Swan the Sheriff" Dad introduced us and we each held our hands out to him in turn.

"Nice to meet you all" Charlie said politely shaking our hands.

He seemed like a quite kind of guy, not what I expected the Sheriff to be, but obviously the movies I had been watching had been quite misleading, because people never looked as cold as I felt outside.

"Well Len, you can take off for the afternoon if you like and show the family around" Charlie said, "I can hold down the fort here."

"Yeah? That would be great, I will take them out to see the new house!"

Dad walked to his desk and grabbed a satchel bag and his keys.

"Follow me Naomi, the house is outside of Forks a little way…"

We followed dad back out into the blistering cold, after saying our good byes to Charlie.

Bryce hopped in the passenger seat of dads' police car and I went with mum in our new Ford Taurus, which had been waiting at the airport for us.

I was silent as we followed dad along the windy roads.

The scenery was breath taking, even though I wouldn't admit it, the moss clad trees and the mountains were gorgeous.

We turned off the main road, onto a dirt driveway that went on for about 5 minutes.

At the end of the driveway was a cute, 2 storey cottage; it was pale lemon yellow with white trim and it had a wrap around porch. There was a little balcony, off what I guessed to be a room, on the second storey.

I was secretly impressed; it looked like something out of a fairy tale.

It had a small yard, with a few neglected gardens around the front, but the forest came right up to the un-mowed lawn, I could imagine what it would look like with a little tender, loving care.

The others had already gone into the house, I looked up at the grey sky and took a breath in, I did love the smell of coming rain.

I pulled my thick jacket a little tighter around me, as sprinkles of rain landed on my face. The rain made me miss my home, I felt worlds away from it.

I heard a twig or something break in the forest near the yard, I snapped my head towards the sound, but there was nothing there so I hurried along inside.

"Don't think about psycho movies right now" I mumbled to myself as I hurried up the porch stairs.

I stopped at the front door and gazed into the forest one more time.

'It was probably just a squirrel or whatever they call them here.'

I laughed to myself unaware of the brown eyes watching me through the trees.

Later that night I was in my room, which I begrudgingly accepted, my earlier dawdling outside had given Bryce the chance to pick the best room.

The house ended being bigger than I thought, mum and dad had the biggest on the ground floor, which had left Bryce and I with the pick of 3 rooms on the second floor.

Bryce got the room with the little balcony, the Romeo and Juliet balcony!

If I hadn't been so jet lagged, I would have fought him for it, but I gave up and chose the room facing over the backyard. There was a huge tree near it that scratched the window lightly when the wind blew.

The big positive about the room was it was huge, and I had my own bathroom.

In Australia, our house was pretty small, Bryce and I shared a bathroom so having one to my self, that I could spread my make up and hair products out in was pretty exciting.

Especially since it had an old fashioned tub, which I was now sitting in, fully clothed, contemplating my next move.

'Would I get a job, go to school here or bludge off the parents for a while?'

"Jem?" my mum sang out softly into the room, "in here" I yelled as my mum stepped into view.

"What on earth are you doing?"

Mum looked at me carefully, probably thinking I was losing it now, seeming I was sitting in the bath clothed and all.

"Just seeing how deep the bath is" I sighed as I stood up and stepped out of it.

"Its nice…"

I wanted to put a positive spin on it, I felt bad for being such a horrid bitch the past 3 days.

"I know its hard Jemma, I know you will miss the girls and your other friends, but think of it as an adventure you know."

Again with the justifying trying to make me soften to the idea. As I looked into her round, hazel eyes, I couldn't argue anymore.

"I will try mum, I am not promising, but I will try", she walked up to me and gave me a big hug.

"Lets get your bed made huh, so you can get some sleep."

I gratefully accepted, walking over to the new bed that dad and Bryce had put together while I had moped around.

My new room was pretty huge, there would be room for my desk and chaise lounge when they arrived.

We had put a lot in storage back in Australia and dad had brought the essentials when he got here. The rest of our furniture wouldn't get here till next week unfortunately.

We had lived at my Aunts, for 3 weeks before we left home because mum and dad wanted the furniture sent ahead, who knew in this day and age it took a month to get furniture places!

Mum helped me pull the plastic off the new mattress and put the clean, crisp, white sheets down. We then put the cover on the thick doona which I would be wrapping myself in it tonight, in an attempt to warm up.

Dad had picked the cover and it was actually nice, I was proud of him for picking something that I liked. It was black and white with embroidered, swirly designs.

I opened up my suitcases, I would unpack them tomorrow, but for now I just pulled out my flannel pyjamas and some clean, plain underwear and walked into the bathroom to try out my new bath.

As I hopped into bed, I was so exhausted I couldn't think of anything as I usually do, I just closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.