Hello All! I Hope you enjoy :)

Summary: Bella is sent to a therapeutic boarding school in Utah where she meets bad boy Edward. Sparks will fly, but can each overcome their past to move forward with their future?

I will only say this once, I only own the plot. Anything Twilight belongs to Stephanie Meyer. No copyright infringement intended.

Before we begin, future chapters discuss things that may be considered triggers for some readers. I reserve the right as a writer to not divulge these events ahead of time, but I will give ample warning. Thanks for your understanding.

Beta'd by Nuttyginger

Pre-read by BubblyGreenBubbles

Song: Possibility by Lykke Li

Chapter 1 - New Beginnings

"New Beginnings are often disguised as painful endings..."

-Lao Tzu

Bella

"Look, two hundred-sixty miles to Vegas! Let's go!" Out of the corner of my eye I caught Charlie's expression. Definitely not one of amusement.

Good work, Bella!

I rolled my eyes. Honestly, he's lucky I was even speaking to him at all after he shipped me off to my mom's house for the entire summer. My dad knew how boring Forks was – he left the small town and moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Nowadays he lives with his blonde bimbo wife, who likes to spend as much of his money as she can. Sue Swan, formerly Clearwater, never missed an opportunity to let the women at the country club know that her husband was the police commissioner. In my experience, that bit of information made it harder to make friends, not easier.

"You know, Bella, it's comments like those that got you in this situation."

Why couldn't he find the humor in that little comment? Honestly, the least he could do was laugh at my poor attempt at a joke. Anyhow, it's not like I meant it. Well, maybe I did…but let's get real. I knew Vegas wasn't in our travel plans.

I turned my head and looked out the window of Charlie's cruiser. There were mountains everywhere, but not like in Washington. There weren't lush, evergreen forests, only rocks and dirt with some trees spread around. I felt like a small ant crawling along the base of an ant hill. Utah wasn't so bad… I guess. At least it was warmer in Utah. I hated the cold.

It's the land of the Mormons! I don't know jack shit about Mormons, but I was pretty sure that those guys who ride their bikes around town in black suits when it's a hundred degrees out were Mormons. I always thought they were crazy for doing that, and now I am considering living in a whole state dedicated to Mormons. That's a whole lot of crazy.

I looked down at the papers in my lap. "The Academy of New Beginnings." When I told Renee that I didn't want to live with her or Charlie, this was her solution. Actually, I had come up with the idea of boarding school, and she had come up with the idea of a "therapeutic boarding school."

"I promise the only difference is that you see a therapist once a week as part of your schedule," Renee had said. Her medication must've made her confident that day because she knew I hated therapists. After seeing four different shrinks in the span of five years, all of whom were there to 'help me,' I'd had enough therapy for a lifetime. After all, Renee had been in therapy her whole life, and she was still eighty kinds of fucked up. I didn't need 'helping'; I needed to be left the fuck alone. So, I agreed to attend this school with the promise of being sent to a normal boarding school, sans therapist, in a year. Anything to get away from the shit show my parents called 'parenting.' Charlie pulled off the highway at the Provo exit. "Look at the directions, Bella. I'm pretty sure it said something about a grocery store being right next door," Charlie mumbled. A grocery store? The pictures didn't show any stores nearby. The pictures made it look like it was in the middle of nowhere.

Interesting, I thought. Strike one!

My parents didn't know, but I had a three-strikes-you're-out kind of thing planned for this school.

Three strikes and we're outta there!

Obviously, having one strike before even arriving wasn't good sign.

"There's a grocery…Ah! And there's the school," I heard Charlie say.

I turned and looked out Charlie's window as we pulled into the parking lot. Well, at least the building looked like the pictures. It looked like an old church with vines growing up the bell tower and an atrium that connected the old church to a newer, but still old, brick building. However, the dilapidated 'backyard' surrounded by nine-foot fencing was NOT in the pictures. Interesting, I would have liked to give the school another strike, but I refrained. No need to put it on its last warning before I even walked through the door.

As we pulled into a parking space, I saw Renee's car.

I stepped out of the car and walked towards the entrance of the school when I heard Charlie,

"Bella, don't you think you should help me with your bags?"

They'd made me pack my bags before I had even seen the school in person. It was a great idea if I actually decided I liked the place, that way I could just stay, but if I didn't, then it was a huge waste of time.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Dad, we don't know for sure that I'll be staying."

As I turned back toward the school, I could have sworn I heard Charlie mutter, "That's what you think," but I chose to ignore it.

I walked in before Charlie and immediately noticed the upscale, old money feel of the converted office. The foyer had a grand staircase on each side with a large chandelier overhead. Under the staircase there were his-and-her bathrooms. As I walked further into the office, I noticed two unoccupied wooden desks with papers, phones, and office supplies neatly piled. In the center of the room was a circular table that held a large flower arrangement. The flowers were real. These people will spend money on anything.

"Bella!" I saw my mother stand from a nearby chair as she rushed over to hug me. "I missed you. How was the drive?"

I half-hugged her back as I said, "You just saw me three days ago, Mom, and the drive was fine. Quiet and boring." I made a point to turn and look at Charlie as I said the word boring. He just scoffed and rolled his eyes. I also mentally noted how Renee had said she missed me after not seeing me for three days. I hadn't talked to the woman for almost two years, until Charlie shipped me off to her house after an epic battle that I had obviously lost, considering I'd ended up with her anyway. When I agreed to the boarding school, I was sent back to Charlie's to get my stuff, and we drove from Phoenix to Provo. Unfortunately, being sent back to Phoenix for only a few days meant I had to come face to face with the wicked witch of the west, and we hadn't left on good terms. She pretended all was well, which irked me even more than her being a raging bitch. Her personality was about as real as her boobs.

We stood there awkwardly as a well-dressed woman with glasses and a body an anorexic ballerina would be jealous of came toward me. "Hi, you must be Bella," she said warmly as we shook hands. I only smiled in response as she introduced herself while acknowledging my parents. "I'm Jane Erickson, the admissions director."

My mother stepped forward and introduced herself. I'm Renee Swan, we spoke on the phone."

Jane nodded and said, "Of course, Mrs. Swan, lovely to meet you in person." This lady was good. No wonder they send her in to win over the hearts and the checkbooks of parents with 'troubled teens' as they affectionately called us on their website. I'm not dumb; I knew this place cost a shitload. She turned to Charlie and extended her hand while he grumbled, "Charlie," and shook her hand.

"It's so nice to meet you all. Let's get straight to it and start with a tour of the school. How does that sound, Bella?"

That's right. I was the decision maker here, ladies and gents.

I smiled. "Sure."

We turned to follow Jane as she began with her tour.

"This is considered the front office, and as we walk down the hall here, these doors are all of the therapists' offices." I fell behind as I noticed a board on the wall with a bunch of pictures on it. I noticed every kid wore a version of the same shirt, different colors, but that was all you could see. They looked like mug shots. This must be all of the students, I thought. I found it kind of odd to have a board of mug shots, but shrugged it off. I scanned through the pictures. seeing nothing overly exciting. But just as I turned to catch up to my parents, I saw a picture of a boy with piercing green eyes and a head of messy bronze hair. He would almost look deranged because his hair stood out in every direction, but his strong jaw line and broad shoulders hinted at a beautiful physique. I looked closer at his expression – a cocky smirk – but when I looked closer, I could see the pain in his eyes and a bit of something else that almost looked like…fear? Before I could study the picture any further, I heard my mother call my name.

"Coming!"

I rounded the corner and found everyone waiting for me by a large wooden door. I tripped over the carpet and had to grab onto Charlie's shoulder to steady myself.

"Sorry," I muttered.

I took a moment and noticed my surroundings. We were in a long hall with white walls and ugly, hunter green carpet. There were six brown wooden doors; each had a bronze plaque with a name engraved on it. The one closest to me read "Alec Greenwood." I internally scoffed a little at that. He definitely sounds like a therapist.

Pulling me from my inner judgments, Jane smiled and motioned to the door at the end of the hall in which we were currently standing. "This is the therapists' access into the students' residential area. It's the only door in the building that needs a key to be accessed; the rest are unlocked, but an alarm will sound if a key isn't used first."

Great. So now I am going to have to remember some key for every door I go through?

Before I could think on that further, Jane finished with, "The staff are the only ones with keys."

Uh, What?

Strike two.

So, what would you do if you were Bella? Leave me a review and let me know! Thanks for reading :)

Lola