I greatly appreciate the opportunity to mess with the Twilight character. I do not profit from their torture.

Chapter 1

Sometimes life has strange ripple effects.

Isabella Swan was nine months old when her parents split up. Her mother took primary custody and move them to various places around the country.

Just before Bella's ninth birthday, her mother, Renee, won the state lottery. After taxes and fees she walked away with fifty-seven million dollars. Then, as every good mother would do, she contacted a lawyer, amending the custody arrangements and terminating her parental rights. Bella was shipped back to a father she had only seen a few times. Renee toured the world, first class of course, and was never heard from again.

Charlie Swan was a hard working cop who was at a loss to cope with a small daughter. He tried his best to raise her the best he could. A lot of the 'feminine stuff' scared him so he tended to avoid that aspect of Bella's childhood.

In sixth grade a new family moved to town and Bella met the girl who was to become her best friend.

When Bella was thirteen she fell in love. When she was 14 she wrote him a long letter telling him. She told him why she loved him, what she loved about him. She was fairly certain that he didn't feel the same way, but she did have a glimmer of hope. At the very least they could still be friends.

He never spoke to her again.

Which made life really hard because he was the older brother of her best friend, Alice. She didn't hang out at Alice's much after that. Not even after he went off the college.

The summer before she turned sixteen Alice and her family moved out of town. While they didn't go far, just up to Seattle, this left Bella with no best friend to share her life with.

She had a few friends at school, people would smile at her in the hallways. While she wasn't the most popular, she was liked.

Until Tyler Crowley lost control of his van and crashed into the back of Bella's truck winter semester when Bella was seventeen.

Now, normally when there is a car accident, the person who is obviously in the wrong is vilified. Almost the opposite happened with this one accident.

Tyler was the school's loveable bad boy. He was naughty but not mean. He would pull pranks on almost everyone. No one could hold a grudge against him, something about his light brown eyes, impishly twinkling, could stop any anger towards him. He was captain of the swim team, tall and lanky. He ruled the school. A loveable despot.

He had inherited his brother's panel van. With some overstuffed pillows and lime green carpeting, he was hoping to turn it into a make-out-mobile. This semester he was crushing on Lauren Mallory. She was, so she thought, the prettiest girl in school.

Tyler was speeding to school, thinking about finally getting Lauren in the back of his van, when he hit a patch of black ice. As the tires spun out, he over corrected, failing to turn into the skid, and lost control.

The van smashed sideways into the back of Bella's ancient Chevy truck just as Bella was climbing out of the driver's door. The impact made her fall to the ground, breaking her wrist. A couple of cuts and a nasty road-rash from the momentum paired with the broken wrist stunned Bella and she passed out from the pain.

Tyler wasn't as lucky as Bella, if you could call her lucky. Like most sixteen year-olds, Tyler thought himself indestructible and infinitely smarter than everyone else, therefore he did not deem it necessary to properly wear his seat belt. He liked to tuck the shoulder strap behind him, not liking the way it cut into his chest.

Tyler's van crumpled like an accordion, his head slamming into the windshield causing the glass to crack like a spider web.

There was yelling and shrieking. The ambulance was called, fire and police followed full siren. Charlie was enraged that his little girl was hurt. Tyler was extracted from his van and put on a gurney as Bella was lifted off the ground. The whole school watched as the rescue squad left the parking lot, everyone scared for the fate of their schoolmates.

Tyler woke up in the ambulance and was able to answer a few questions. He admitted that he took the corner too fast and didn't notice the ice.

Bella did not come around for a while, not until the blood was cleaned from her face. It took four stitches to close the cut on her forehead and her left wrist was encased in a green, waterproof cast.

Bella talked her father out of arresting Tyler or killing him. Tyler had fallen asleep again and looked so innocent that Bella could not justify his getting in trouble for a simple accident.

Bella was released to the care of her father and spent the rest of the day on the couch reading.

Tyler had to stay for observation for a concussion. A routine check in the middle of the night found increased intra-cranial pressure. He was given medicine to control the swelling and put into intensive care to be watched more closely.

When he started to improve he was flown to Seattle by helicopter to be examined by a neurologist. He was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and would have to spend months in rehabilitation.

AN: I thought I'd try again. I had such fun posting last time. This is not a period piece, it is a high school fic. It had been a long time since I was in high school so you may have to bear with me. I'm also not American. so I've never had a senior year. I was luck enough to have to do grade thirteen, so yay me, I got extra high school. I am not a medical professional, nor do I play one on TV , therefore all medical references are vague and not intended to be scientifically based. There are different levels of traumatic brain injury and the consequences and outcomes are different for each person. I am in no way belittling or making fun of those who have survived, and are still surviving such an injury and I abhor anyone who does.

This story will post every three days, not daily like Swallow.