Dear Danielle,

I've got a new story! Yay me! I rock, I know. Here it goes.

Disclaimer- I don't own the wonderful Twilight series, SO GET OFF MY BACK!!!!

A/N- the beginning is pre-twilight, when Bella was in junior high in Phoenix. It'll gradually go to post-eclipse, but I'll still let you know because some people (like myself when I'm in a hurry) skip A/Ns and if I don't it'll make a lot of confusion, yada, yada, yada.

I felt like showing you guys pretty much what I did in the three months I didn't update…

Phoenix, Arizona- 2000 (pre-twilight, when Bella was a freshman)

BPOV

Once again, it was the weekend in sunny Phoenix, and there was nothing to do. Homework was out of the way, I even got an essay done a week ahead. So, I settled myself in my room, ready for a dull Saturday nap. Of course, Renee wanted to do something else.

"Bella, please don't tell me that you're just going to sleep in your room all day," she came in and opened the shade that I closed, drowning the room in blinding light.

"What else is there to do?" I had to squint to protect my eyes.

"I don't know, just do something proactive! Go to the pool with me." She opened my closet and pulled out my one piece that was black and had red stripes down the side. "We honestly need to get you a two piece, that old one is hideous." I decided to ignore her comment; it would only lead to a bikini shopping trip, which I was definitely not up to.

"Fine," I reluctantly got up. She handed me my suit she just insulted.

"Cheer up, Bella. We can get a cute guy to put sunscreen on you." I went in to my walk in closet and started to change.

"Mom, you know guys aren't my biggest priority." I talked through the door.

"C'mon, you need to act your age, stop being middle-aged for one day and come to the wild side with me." Yeah, like that was going to happen. I was just as likely to do that as to move into Charlie's house.

When I came out, somehow she was already changed into her two-piece, I had to admit; she was a heartbreaker.

"Let's go!" She said like a kid before Christmas. Sometimes I wondered who the adult here was.

I let her drag me the three blocks in the comforting heat to the community pool. Renee grabbed the nearest shady spot with plastic lounge chairs, unlike me she was actually capable of tanning and getting sunburns.

Once we were situated with our chairs, Renee went to the bulletin board to look at ads while I got myself comfortable, ready for a nice nap.

"Bella! I've found something that you will be interested in! Come and look!" she yelled to me from to other side of the pool, we were the first ones there, lunchtime. She just wouldn't let me relax!

"What is it now mom?"

"The Swimming and Diving team is looking for new members! It belongs to you're school! You should join!"

"Mom, can you just let me enjoy the weekend in peace?"

"Honey, you're just laying around, it's not normal. You need to be physically active, I'm signing you up."

"What? No!" I got up and ran to stop her, but I was too late, she put my name in the sign up box.

"Practice starts today, actually in one hour. I signed you up for both swimming and diving because I didn't know which one you would prefer."

"Mom, why would you do this to me? I don't want to be on the swim team!"

"Well, you're signed up, get ready."

I couldn't believe that she would do this to me; she quite literary enlisted me on to a swim team that has a reputation like the military around here.

Soon, I saw Conrad, my gym teacher come out. My mom dragged me to go see her.

"Hello, Mrs. Grusslin, I'm Renee, Bella here is signing up for the swimming and diving team."

"That's great!" for the first time ever, I saw Conrad smile, she always wore a frown during gym class, maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

Oh was I wrong.

The first two weeks was nothing but hell. Each day's hour and a half practices caused aches and pains in places where I didn't even know I had muscles.

On the first day, Conrad explained the basics to Lane 1, the newbies.

"The pool is 25 meters long, so when we say a 50, that means swim down there and back. Just think about it like money, down there is 25 cents and back is 50, and so forth. IM is fly, back, breast, free, you guys know that right?" we all took her swim class already, so we knew each stroke. "SP is sprint, BTH/3 is breath each 3rd stroke, BD is build were you start slow then build up so you end up sprinting, and w is warm down. Each will have a specific number next to it, that's how much you'll do it."

I shared a lane with five other people, Keegan, Joe, Jon, Jeanie, and Kevin. They were all nice, that was good. At least I didn't have to swim with total snobs.

At the end of practice, everyone left, except the divers, which included me.

(A/N- ok, I wasn't on the diving team, so this is what I've heard what they do.)

We first worked on our flexibility, where I found out that I was very flexible. Then we worked on how to bounce on the board correctly, that was harder for me, and my clumsiness didn't help either.

But Chris, the star diver and a legend among other schools, showed me a trick.

"I'm clumsy too, so how this is how I dive. I think mechanically, no human thoughts, become a machine, do only what your ordered, and then use that to your advantage. Soon, if you get really good, you can become your own boss."

We first learned how to let our selves fall, it took me a few times and a few belly flops to get the hang of it. Then we worked on regular dives, concentrating on one point behind us so we don't lose concentration.

So we practiced this by having the diving coach, Greg, hold up fingers as we dived then we told him how many there were. I, surprisingly, got them all right.

"I believe we have another star diver coming, good thing this is your first year, so you'll be good by next year when Chris isn't here." Greg patted my back.

He wanted me to do less swim practices so I could put more into diving practices, which were every other day.

So every other day I would put in a full swim practice then on odd days I would put in a half practice then stretch for the diving practice.

A/N- is it good? Near the end, I'll put it into the present (before the wedding). That's my plan anyway…