"Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!" Seriously could there be anything more annoying? An alarm on my phone that sounds like a rooster? Problem was, while I didn't sleep much, when I did I slept heavy. And that damn rooster was the only thing that could wake me up. I rolled over and reached my hand out towards my night stand fumbling like a drunk for my phone. Of course I managed to knock it off my stand rather than pick it up. I heard I disheartening sound as it hit the floor. Oh please not another one I thought to myself. I was on phone number 4 so far this year. I was so clumsy it was almost a joke, and unfortunately anything that came in my day to day path was in threat of being destroyed. I sat up in bed and pushed my hair out of my face sighing. Well at least whatever had happened to my phone had shut the damn alarm off. I didn't want to check the damage on it until I had to, and mentally I told myself id have to find time to head to the phone store today, figuring the worst had happened already. Walking past my window I noticed it was going to be another beautiful day in Washington State. Beautiful that is if you like gray and dreary with a constant threat of rain. And I do; now, anyway.

I hadn't always lived here. I was born in Washington, but my parents divorced when I was young, and after the divorce I lived with my mother. We bounced around from state to state for a while. That was until my mother met Phil. They had been settled in Arizona for quite some time now. I liked Phil enough, he was good to mother and he never really tried to pry, which had been just about more than any teenage girl could ask for in a step father. However they had been in the honeymoon phase of their marriage, and it made me a little ill, not to mention embarrassed to be in the same house as them. That was when I had decided to go live with my dad Charlie. Charlie and I had always had a good relationship. I had visited him regularly in the summers and he would come and visit me one a year in whatever city my mom Renee and I happened to be living in at the time. Charlie was the chief of police and he loved his commitment to his small town, so I never blamed him for not coming to visit more than once a year. He had been surprised but thrilled when I called him up and asked if I could come live with him. I explained as best I could in little detail about the situation with mom and Phil, though I may have made a few gagging noises that made Charlie chuckle, and within three weeks time I was packed and off to forks Washington. While I brushed my teeth I chided myself about a trip down memory lane. So not the time swan. I took a long hot shower to relax and get ready for the day and was wrapping my mass of brown hair into a towel when my cell phone rang. It played "girls just wanna have fun" so I knew it was rose. Man I hated that ringer but it was a long standing joke between us and she refused to let me change it. I found my cell under my bed and grimaced when I saw its face. Right now it was displaying a picture of rose and I on a trip we had taken to New Orleans…or at least what we would have looked like covered in spider webs. Shit, I had cracked my screen again. I could only pray it worked. I hit the button to answer and said hello.

"Jesus, could it have taken you any longer?" yelled rose. "Sorry I got lost in the shower. Am I late?" I asked. 'No, that's why I'm calling now. This way I can remind you not be late" she giggled at me. "I'll meet you down at the diner in 15 minutes." I said "we said or goodbyes and hung up. I went back into the bathroom and attempted to tame my tangle of hair. I wasn't pretty but I wasn't plain either. I considered my hair my one good attribute. It was long, very thick and very brown. Sometimes if I got sun it had a slight red tint to it. I just couldn't bear to cut off the one thing that made me feel good, so it had always been exceptionally long. I dressed in record time, in my normal, jeans, t-shirt, and adidas attire and grabbing my purse and a hoodie I headed out the door to meet rose. The drive to the diner only took about 5 minutes, and I rolled the window down in an n attempt to let the wind dry my hair. I nixed that idea after about a minute cause it was still simply too cold to ride with the windows down. The town was still pretty quiet and sleepy since it was still pretty early. I parked next to rose and walked into the diner. I found her seated at our usual table by the window and as I sat down Diane, one of the long time employees of the diner brought over my coffee. "You're an angel, you know that Di?" she smiled indulgently at me, like a grandmother would a grandchild and said "nah, I just know your habits after all this time. You're as predictable as the weather in forks, Bella."

I sighed because I knew this to be true already. What can I say? There's comfort in consistency. Whiles I put my cream and sugar in my coffee, Rose sat quite silent. This was anything but normal. I raised my eyebrows at her questioningly, and she smiled "Anything new for the store today?" She asked. "Eh, I've got a few new releases coming in tomorrow so today I'll be moving things around. You know, making room, setting up the display. That kind of thing." She nodded in understanding. I was the proud, or proud of myself anyway, owner of "The Quiet Corner", the local bookstore here in town. We'd never really had a bookstore before, and most people drove to Port Angeles if they needed books, including myself once upon a time. For me, this was my dream come true; surrounded by books every day. Charlie, my dad, was my silent partner. He had helped me finance the startup. The fact that he had supported my dream meant the world. I popped back into the here and now when I realized Rose hadn't said a single word. Normally shed be prattling on about new clothes coming into the store she worked at, or who wore what on what awards show. But, not a single word. This was exceptionally odd.

"Ok Rose, what's up? You haven't been this quiet in the morning since you had that wardrobe malfunction at that club years it". She sighed slightly and brushed her hair over her shoulders. Leaning forward with her hands in her lap she began. "Ok well, I'm not really sure how you're going to react. Or maybe you won't react at all, which would be very good. But I know you too well to expect that. But I just saw something, which thank god you were running late and didn't have to witness. " I looked at her completely dumbfounded. "Ro, if that was supposed to be an explanation, I am completely clueless. Shell we play charades? First word? How many syllables?" She ran her hands down her face, blew out a big puff of air and looked me in the eye. "He's back." She said, and her tone told me everything. I felt a long forgotten heaviness in my chest, and I blinked a few times while my breathing became shallow. She couldn't possibly mean…"who rose. Who's back?" I asked. She looked down at the table and whispered" Cullen. Edward Cullen is back." And then all I saw was black as the floor tilted up to meet me and I passed out.

As I came to, I could hear Rose talking to me, or maybe it was to herself. I heard her say "flare for the dramatic." And I blinked my eyes open. Slowly things came back into focus. Well, at least the ceiling of the diner, anyway. From what I could tell I was laying prone on my back on the floor of the diner. 'Damn Swan,' I thought to myself. 'Get a grip here'. I looked at Rose and saw her face was a mixture of sadness and concern. She opened her mouth to speak and I held up a finger gesturing for her to just wait a minute. Thankfully, she closed her mouth. She helped me up and I got myself seated back in the booth. After assuring Diane that I was fine I saw Rose begin to speak again. "No." I said. "No. We are not discussing it. "She gave me a stern look. "We are continuing our day as if nothing had changed. Understood?" After a tense moment she nodded and began drinking her tea. Breakfast passed by in mutual silence, each of us lost in our thoughts.

I drove to the shop decidedly numb. I was doing my best to try and forget the conversation with rose and the incident of fainting that followed. Singing along loudly with the radio helped. And yes, Alanis Morrisette, it is a little ironic. I pulled into my space behind the store and put my beaten old civic in park. Sure, I could probably afford a new car, but I loved my little foreign piece of scrap metal. After unlocking the door I stepped inside and took a deep breath. And there was my relief. The smell of hundreds of books assaulted my nose and I was instantly comforted. Walking towards the front of the store I flipped on the music and checked to make sure my coffee was brewing with the alarm I set on it. Humming along and flipping on the lights I took a good look around. I had set the store up like an old fashioned library. Books ran the walls as high as the ceilings would let them. The rolling ladders on racks on each wall. The wood inside was a deep, rich mahogany and it was polished to a high shine. Little chairs and loveseat were scattered here and there. In the far back corner, tucked away, was the children's section. It was by far my favorite. It was set up like an old world fairy tale, complete with a small play castle, a big stuffed dragon, some dress up clothes, and tons of children's books. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and Saturday mornings I did story time. I loved story time. Sometimes even Rose would tell the stories on Saturdays, but frankly I think she scares the children. Maternal is not the first word I would apply to rose. For me, children are magic. A special magic that's hard to define.

After I had arranged some things in other places and had set up display for the new vampire book coming out tomorrow…hey whatever makes people read… I was ready to open up. I flipped the sign on the door, twisted the lock and made my way back behind the counter after pouring myself another cup of coffee. I seated myself on the high stool and grabbed my book out of my bag in preparation to wait for customers. My copy of Sense and Sensibility was so beaten it was pathetic, but it was my favorite book. Even for my second copy this one was pretty well worn. I sighed as I ran my hand down the cover, thinking about my original copy. ..

I sat at the lunch table by myself reading my book. I could hear the unmistakable sound of high heels walking past me. Mentally I scoffed. Seriously, who wears high heels to high school….and in forks? As the heels passed I heard a catty voice say "Don't know why the freak insists on being called Bella. That geek is anything but pretty." I heard a few tittered laughs thrown in my direction as they passed. The heels belonged to Lauren Mallory. At least I think that was her name. She was in my second period history class. My first day at Forks High was proving to be absolutely crappy. Apparently I was already being made fun of. I shook it off mentally. New girl in a new school in a very small town. It was exactly as I had expected it to be. I sighed as I set down my book and went to reach for my bottle of ice tea. Somewhere along the way I managed to fling my book on the floor rather than set it down on the table. Classic Bella Swan move. Seriously, you couldn't pay people to be as klutzy as I am. As I reached down for it a hand shot out and picked it up for me. "Thank you" I said quietly without looking up.

"Brandon, or Ferrars?" There was no way for me to describe the voice that had asked the question. To call it melodic was an understatement. It was the kind of voice that made you wonder if you had ever heard anything clearly in your life before that sounds. It seemed to resonate inside my own chest. I still hadn't even bothered to look at its source. "You must prefer one or the other." It asked again. I shook myself out of my reverie to look up only to be stunned into another one. 'Autumn' my brain whispered to me immediately. I was looking at the colors of the most beautiful fall I had ever seen. There before me stood a boy my age. He was definitely much taller than me with a lean build and somewhere in my brain I registered his clothes must be expensive. But I only realized these things after the fact. My eyes couldn't figure out what they wanted to absorb more. It was a tossup between the shock of bronze hair on top of his head which was all over the place, and the piercing greenness of his eyes. They were such an intense color of green and they looked a lot older than his 16 years. I noticed there was a crease between his eyes as his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. I wanted to touch him there, and smooth out the crease, telling him it was ruining his sculpted face. Wait, confusion? He was looking at me confused? OH! He had asked me a question! Think swan think, what did he ask?

"Fardon" I said quickly. The crease between his eyebrows became more pronounced as he tilted his head at me. I had to be the color of a tomato by now. I cleared my throat and tried to ignore my ears burning. "Sorry, you caught me off guard." He nodded for a second and said "that's alright. You new here?" I laughed a little "that obvious, huh?" "I've pretty much known everyone here since birth so yeah, I think id remember you." I felt myself blushing again. Craps on cream cheese swan get a flipping grip! "Well anyway here you go….?" "Bella" I said "Bella Swan" I said looking down at the table. "Well here you go Bella." He said while setting my withered copy of sense and sensibility down on the table, and then turned and started to walk away. Wait I had never answered his question I realized. I turned in his direction and said loudly "Edward!" He turned around looking a little stunned "What?" he asked. "Ferrars. I like Edward." I explained. And then his face broke out in an expression that glued me to the spot. It was a crooked yet absolutely perfect smile. It made my heart stutter and then pick up double time. "Well fancy that." He said. "Huh?" I asked by way of looking for an explanation. "That's my name too. Edward." And with a wink he turned away and kept walking.

I slammed back into the present with a suffocating feeling. I could feel the panic rising in my chest. I grabbed my book off the counter and shoved it back in my bag with unnecessary force. Apparently I lacked all forms of sense, and sensibility.