My sister was coming to Forks. Dad and I got pretty well, and I knew that he'd always missed Bella not living with us. When he told me Bella was coming to town, I was curious as to what would drive my sun loving sister to the rainiest place in America.

When our parents had divorced, we had both moved with our mom away from Forks and our dad to sunnier pastures. By the age of six, I was already determined to live with my dad. He seemed lonely, I had decided, and I knew that the already mature seven year old Bella would be able to look after our mother. So I had moved back home, and had gone to visit my mother and sister for a few weeks every summer. Bella eventually stopped coming to Forks, preferring for my dad and I to visit her. So you can understand my curiosity in what would drive Bella to move here. I knew she liked our stepdad Phil as much as I did, and I intended to get the reasons out of her when we picked her up at the airport.

"It's good to see you, Bells," Dad said with a smile, automatically catching the ever clumsy Bella as she stumbled and giving her an obviously awkward hug. "You haven't changed much. How's Renee?"

"Mom's fine. It's good to see you, too, Dad,"

I had to smirk at the obvious restraint against her habit of referring to him as Charlie.

"Hey little sis," Bella said with a fond smile, making me roll my eyes. A year was barely older, but I hugged with her with slightly less awkwardness than my dad had. We Swans weren't exactly the hugging type.

"Hi Bella," I greeted, and we headed to get her few bags. I had to raise an eyebrow at this. I was hardly a fashionista by any means, but I was a sixteen year old girl after all… I did love my clothes.

When we all got into my dad's police cruiser (he was Police Chief Swan in Forks), I reluctantly gave up my usual spot in the passenger seat to Bella at my dad's look. Once I was in the backseat, I excitedly said, "Tell her the news, Dad,"

"News?" she said, somewhat warily.

"I found a good car for you, really cheap," he said, brushing it off as if it wasn't a big deal and he hadn't been obsessed with finding her a safe, reliable car since she had asked him to live with us.

"What kind of car?"

"Well, it's a truck actually, a Chevy,"

I practically groaned in jealousy. I had foregone a car in favour of a computer with actual internet that didn't take five years, but my next birthday had me determined to get a car.

"He got it from Billy," I said. "Jake fixed it up for you,"

"Who're they again?" she asked, confusion written all over her face.

"From La Push," I reminded her; somewhat annoyed that she had forgotten my best friend Jacob and his father.

"He used to go fishing with us during the summer," Dad prompted as he drove.

"Bella hated fishing, remember?" I said, and was somewhat pleased to see her blush.

"Well, Billy's in a wheelchair now," Charlie continued as if I hadn't interrupted. "So he can't drive anymore, and he offered to sell me his truck cheap,"

"What year is it?" she asked, and I knew Dad felt somewhat guilty about this. But seriously, she couldn't be expecting much. Both our parents had limited resources.

"Like Grace said, Jake fixed it up real well, did a lot of work on the engine – it's only a few years old really,"

"It's like from the fifties," I interrupted.

Bella looked slightly horrified. "Ch – Dad, I don't really know anything about cars. I wouldn't be able to fix it if anything went wrong, and I couldn't afford a mechanic…"

"Jake wouldn't give you a dodgy car," I said defensively.

"I'm sure Bella didn't mean it like that, Grace," Dad said, trying to calm me down as always. "Really, the thing runs great. Jacob did a great job on it."

"How cheap is cheap?" she asked, surprising me as she seemed to come around. Maybe it was only to appease me, since I'd be so offended at her questioning my best friend's mad skills.

"Well, honey, I kind of already bought it for you. As a homecoming gift," he looked at her with a slightly hopeful expression, making me feel instantly defensive of him too. He and Bella had never been close, and it was obvious he was desperate for some kind of connection.

She looked suitably surprised and impressed, so I sat back as she insisted he didn't have to do that and thanked him, much to his obvious embarrassment but I'm sure delight.

We arrived home, and I watched as Bella instantly fell in love with her new truck and thanked Dad again, this time with even more appreciation.

I helped get her stuff into her bedroom. It was the same bedroom she'd had from when she was little. We'd never had reason to redecorate her room, especially since she hadn't come to Forks in years.

Dad left us to it, and Bella slowly sank down onto her bed.

I put down the last of her stuff. "Here you go,"

"Thanks Grace," she said quietly, looking a bit overwhelmed.

"Did you want help unpacking?" I asked.

"No, it's fine," she said.

"Okay," I said, heading into my own room beside hers.

Jake and Billy arrived half an hour later with Bella's truck.

I heard their car coming down the road, and headed downstairs quickly, eager to see my best friend.

"I heard you guys coming all the way down the road," Dad said good naturedly, narrowly beating me out the house to greet the Blacks.

"Bella, you remember Billy Black," Dad said, despite her not remembering in the car ride earlier.

She shook his hand, and acted like she did remember. "Oh, hey, looking good,"

"I'm still dancing," he joked, referring to his wheelchair. "I'm glad you're finally here. Charlie here hasn't shit up about it since you told him you were coming,"

Bella looked at me, and I smirked, confirming Dad's excitement about Bella coming to live with us.

Dad sighed in embarrassment. "Alright, keep exaggerating… I'll roll you into the mud,"

Jake and I just laughed at our dads, used to their antics.

"After I ram you in the ankles," Billy said.

"Bring it," Dad retorted.

Figuring now was as a good a time as any, I said, "Bella, this is Jake,"

"Ah, Jacob," she said, her eyes lighting in recognition. "So the best friend Grace never shuts up about?"

I squirmed in embarrassment, while Jake just laughed.

"Thanks, Bella," I said with a roll of the eyes.

"We bonded over mud pies and never looked back," he said affectionately.

Bella smiled. "Are they always like this?" she asked, referring to our dads who were still mucking around.

"It's getting worse with old age," he said.

"So true," I agreed, as our dads finally stopped embarrassing us and came back over.

"So what do you think?" Dad asked Bella, who started mooning over the car.

"I told you she'd love it," Billy said to Dad, once Bella and Jake had gone into the car to check it out. "I'm down with the kids,"

"Sure, Billy," I said with a laugh.

"Oh yeah, dude," Dad said. "You're the bomb,"

"Come on guys, football's on soon," I said, leading the way back in the house. Surrounded by boys all the time like I was, I had learned quickly to just like sports or have a very boring life. It gave me and Dad something to bond over, anyway.

Bella had gone to cook dinner, so Jake joined me in my room.

"So how's it going?" Jake asked. "She seems pretty cool,"

"She's okay," I said somewhat reluctantly.

"Spill," he said, seeing through me far too easily.

"She's just… I don't know, we've never been close because we live so far apart, but it's just awkward," I said.

"Says the queen of awkwardness,"

"Shut up," I said good-naturedly, as I sat on my bed. "She's the queen of clumsy, anyways. She loves that truck though, doesn't she?"

He gave me a cocky look, cracking me up. "My assistant did all the hard work,"

I laughed at his reference to me assisting him, since mostly it was just getting me to pass him tools.

"Of course," I said with false modesty.

Jake and I had been best friends pretty much since I had moved to Forks at the age of six. We had never gone to the same school, since he'd attended school on the reservation and I went to Forks Elementary and then High School. Regardless, our bond over mud pies had grown into a genuine friendship.

"I just have bad feeling about this," I confessed.

"About Bella living here?" he clarified.

I nodded, and Jake looked worried. I had unbelievably good instincts, to the point Jake liked to joke it was my superpower or something. Bella coming here was supposed to be a good thing, wasn't it?

My uneasy feeling lingered as I heard Bella softly cry herself to sleep from my bedroom, which was next to hers. Why was she even here then, if living with us made her so miserable?

The three of us sat down to breakfast, which was quiet and weird. Dad and I never really ate breakfast together, seeing how I was the type of person who was always running late and grabbing a pop tart during my rush out the door. But Bella had gotten me up after her shower, offering a lift to school. Dad wished her luck on his way out. At least I knew where I got my awkwardness from.

I put the cereal dishes in the sink and Bella wandered into the family room. I followed her in, and noticed her staring at the photographs. Dad had every school picture that had ever been taken of Bella and I framed and proudly presented over the fireplace.

"Do you think I could get him to take them down?" she said with embarrassment.

I laughed. "Yeah, good luck. I've been trying for years," I indicated to one particularly embarrassing shot of me with a wide grin and a missing front tooth.

She grinned. "You were so cute at that age,"

"Come on old lady," I smiled. "Drive me to school,"

We put on our thick jackets and headed out. She quickly hurried to the car, clearly already hating the weather.

"So what's the deal?" I asked bluntly.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "What do you mean?" she seemed flustered as she started the car, which roared to life quickly. Thanks to Jacob, I thought with pride.

"I mean you hate Forks," I said. "And you don't seem particularly fond of Dad… or is it still Charlie?"

She frowned at my disapproval. "You know Mom wasn't happy staying home with me while Phil travelled so I thought I should come here,"

"You're such a martyr," I said with annoyance. We stayed silent for the rest of the ride, a melancholy silence between us. If we didn't look so similar, though Bella was a bit taller and had longer hair, you wouldn't have thought we were sisters. Times like this made me feel like we were strangers. I directed her to the school by pointing, and hopped out of the car. Reluctantly, I led her into the front office.

"I didn't mean to offend you, Grace," she said quietly.

I looked at her, still irritated. "You've made it quite clear what you think about me, Dad and Forks," I said. "They can help you out," I indicated to the front desk. "See you,"

The whole school was buzzing with the news of my sister's arrival. I wasn't exactly unpopular, but I only had a few good friends and generally went by mostly unnoticed by the majority of the student body. I found myself in the spotlight as everyone tried to find stuff out about the new girl.

"They'll get over it," Natalie, one of my good friends, said as she sat beside me in Algebra.

"God, I hope so," I muttered, actually paying attention in class instead of listening to the gossip surrounding me as a few choice gossips tried to get my attention.

At lunch, I sat at my usual table with Gemma, Natalie, Ben and Ryan, and watched as my sister walked in with Jessica Stanley. I rolled my eyes; of course Jessica would want to attach herself to the instant popularity that Bella offered, being the most new and interesting thing in Forks High School.

Bella paused at my table, and our usually noisy group quietened at her approach.

"Are you still mad?" she asked, quietly enough so I was the only one that heard her.

I shrugged. "Do what you want, Bella," I said honestly, and I was happy to see her follow Jessica to her table.

"Whoa, never seen you so harsh," Ben commented. Ben Cheney was actually in Bella's year, as was Natalie, but somehow the four of us had come together when the older two had saved Ryan and me from bullies in elementary school.

"Sisters," I said as way of explanation and my response was generally accepted. I noticed Bella's interest in the Cullen family immediately. Everything was always written across her face. I felt that feeling again, my instincts telling me this wasn't a good thing. I had never particularly cared one way or the other about the Cullens; they were good looking but seemed snobby which was an immediate turn off. I looked back down at my lunch, suddenly not hungry. What problems could these beautiful people cause?

I waited at Bella's truck with Ryan after school, who was talking about going surfing at La Push. I often went with groups from school to La Push; it was a good opportunity to catch up with the Quileute boys and my school friends at the same time. Ryan looked like a typical California beach boy, which was where his parents were from. He surfed where he could here, but loved to visit his grandparents in California and try and get a tan and good surf every summer.

Bella arrived, and I introduced her to Ryan, but her mind was clearly elsewhere. Ryan cheerfully left (he was the kind of person who was perpetually happy) and I looked at Bella in concern.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I had gym," she said, and I sighed. While Bella was no doubt extremely clumsy and shouldn't be involved in any sport whatsoever, I could tell it was more than that.

"You look like you're about to cry," I said, hopping into the truck.

She sat beside me, staring blankly out the windshield for a while.

"Bella?" I said cautiously. Maybe I'd been too much of a bitch over her acting like a martyr.

"What do you know about the Cullens?"

"Beautiful snobs," I instantly responded. I touched her arm, she jumped. "Did one of them say something to you?"

"No," she said quickly. "It's nothing. I was just curious,"

"Okay," I said, not believing her. I didn't feel comfortable pushing this, so I let it go. Once again, it was a car ride of silence. I couldn't help but be sad as I realised just how far apart we had grown.

We ate dinner at the local diner that night. Dad and I were regulars, seeing how both of us rarely cooked.

Stephanie, our waitress, smiled at Bella as she gave us our burgers and fries.

"I just can't get over how grown up you are," she said. "And so gorgeous, just like your sister. You guys look like you could be twins,"

Poor Bella looked so awkward. It was always hard when people remembered you from when you were little and you had no clue who they were. Of course, I'd encountered it from a couple of my mom's friends some summers, but in a small town like Forks, Bella was going to get it a lot more than I ever had.

Waylon, one of my dad's friends, "Hey Bella, remember me? I played Santa one year,"

"Yeah, Waylon, she hasn't had a Christmas here since she was four," Dad said.

I stabbed at a fry, making Bella frown. Just goes to show how often Bella bothered coming here.

"Well, I bet I made an impression, didn't I?" Waylon said proudly, never one to let an awkward silence bother him.

"Just trying to picture you as Santa," I said, my head tilted to the side.

"Add a butt crack to your mental image and you've got it," Stephanie said, cracking me up.

She ushered Waylon aside to let us eat in relative peace, and let Bella know Dad has her former favourite, berry cobbler, every Thursday. This was true, but I'd never even known that it had been Bella's favourite. It was a dessert I'd always just associated with my dad.

"And I'll be sure to bring you waffles, Grace," she said with a friendly smile. I forced a smile, feeling uncomfortable that I'd never realised just how much my dad had missed my older sister. It was easy to see he was still in love with our mother. Anything that reminded him of her, especially in me, always made him smile. Maybe I should have pushed Bella harder to come visit Dad more often.

"What's wrong with you?" Dad asked, as I pushed the fries around my plate. "You'd have normally eaten half your burger already,"

"Just not hungry," I said quietly.

Bella shifted guiltily in her seat. We ate the rest of the meal in silence.

At least one thing I could be grateful for was that Bella could cook. Once she had learned that Dad and I very rarely cooked, she had immediately requested that she be assigned kitchen detail, and even went shopping and stocked the house with stuff that actually required cooking. She emailed and called Mom a lot, which I was grateful for because when she forgot Mom got on my case checking if Bella was okay. Geez, Mom, you've never shown me this much care. Still, I knew that Dad would be the same way if the situation was reversed.

I was surprised when, the night after the diner meal, she asked about the Cullens.

"Do you know the Cullen family?" she asked Dad hesitantly. I looked at her, but she avoided eye contact. Clearly, 'beautiful snobs' had not satisfied her curiosity.

"Dr Cullen's family? Sure. Dr Cullen's a great man,"

The Cullens had never caused Dad any problems, never broken the law, of course he liked them.

"They… the kids… are a little different. They don't seem to fit in very well at school,"

Dad looked angry, to Bella's surprise, and he looked at me.

I held my hands in the air, despite the piece of steak hanging off my fork. "Don't look at me, Dad. They exclude themselves. They're snobs."

Dad went on to defend the goodness of the Cullens, making an uncharacteristically long speech in his defence of them.

"They seem nice enough to me," Bella said.

"Do you have a crush on one of them or something?" I said, and smirked at her instant blush.

"Leave your sister alone," Dad said and we went back to eating in silence. I looked at Bella thoughtfully. So which Cullen was it that caught her eye? Jasper, Emmett or Edward? I'd make it my mission to find out.

She remained surprisingly silent on the topic, so we spent most of our time in silence when together, and I made an effort to spend time out of the house. I stayed the weekend at Jake's, hanging with him, Quil and Embry. I normally spent some time there, but it had only increased since my sister's arrival. I was more than surprised to find, when I got home Sunday, that the house had been cleaned. I knew Dad had been working (and not too happy with me that I wasn't spending the weekend with my sister or inviting her along) so it could only be Bella. It was hard to stay mad at her when she did all the housework Dad and I normally avoided.

I was thrilled by the snow the next morning, with Ryan, Ben, Natalie, Gemma and I all late to class because, like a lot of students, we got caught up in a snow ball fight. I was in a great mood all morning, which was interrupted at lunch when I got in line with Ben to buy food, right behind my sister and her friends. Another snow ball fight had erupted on the way to the cafeteria, and I had seen Bella had been less than impressed by it. She then seemed completely frozen, staring at the Cullens. Immediately, I knew exactly which brother it was that she had a thing for. She had seen the other four siblings there all week, but it was only now she had the reaction, now Edward was back. And all through lunch, Edward stared at her. He had never noticed a girl at school before, and I was intrigued that he had taken an interest in my sister.

Of course, Bella said nothing of Edward; even though I had asked around and found out they had Biology together and were partners. The next morning, I was thrilled and Bella was dismayed when the world was turned into a snowy winter wonderland. The snow the previous day had been pretty light, today was perfect. As was usual for us now, the car ride consisted of the radio for noise and no conversation. She drove excessively cautiously, considering Dad would have put snow chains on the truck. He was very protective.

I followed her to the back of the truck, where she was examining the chains with emotion. But then, Mom wasn't exactly the type to look after her kids. Her heart was in the right place, but she tended to need taking care of rather than be the one taking care of others.

I was about to say something, maybe finally attempt to bond with her; with there was a strange high pitched screech that was dramatically increasing in volume. We both turned, and my jaw dropped as I saw Tyler Crowley's dark blue van skidding out of control, heading right for where we were standing.

I barely had time to scream, "Bella!"

But out of nowhere, Edward appeared and pinned us to the ground. He stopped the truck with his hand! At least, that was the last thing I saw before I was knocked out as my head slammed against the ground.