A/N- I know I should be writing the next chapters of my stories, but I have a few ideas that keep entering my head and refuse to leave. Inspired by "The Great Escape" by Boys Like Girls.

And I don't know how to skateboard or belong to any type of team, so I'm just making all of it up as I go.

July 14th, 2005 (I think that's the right year… I can't remember!)

The count down was on, thirty more days till the wedding.

Edward was out hunting with the rest of the family, for the first time in what seemed like months; he didn't make anyone stay behind. I was alone, but that thought was somewhat comforting because now I actually had time to myself.

When I checked my email, with the regular emails I received from Renee, there was a letter from a friend I had almost forgotten, Hannah, a friend that belonged to a posse I used to belong to in Phoenix.

Hey Bells!

Have you forgotten your friends? We've haven't heard from you since, well forever!

WE WANT OUR BELLS BACK!!!

Well, we're going to the leagues this year and get this; WE'RE A SKATER SHORT!!! So, if it were at all possible, could you come this weekend, we'll pay for gas!

-Your Forgotten Friends

It had been so long since I even practiced skateboarding. Even though something in my brain refused to let me walk on a smooth surface without falling, I was very good at skating. It was very ironic; it was as if my balance was made up on the board with wheels.

But the more I thought about it, I wanted to go. It would give me closure with my past in Phoenix.

So, I decided to go, there was only one thing holding me back, Edward.

I dialed Alice's number in the phone in the kitchen.

"Bella, I'm not sure if I like what you're thinking. Edward would like to know where you're going."

"I'm just visiting some friends in Phoenix, they deserve some closure."

"Why can't Edward come?"

"It would mess up some things." He would flip if he saw what I was capable on a board. "Tell him that I'm taking his Vanquish, and if I even get the hint that he's following me, I'll take my car key to his paint job."

"Oh, it would mess up things that bad?"

"And please block any visions that you get. This is what I need, tell him that."

"I don't like this, let me come."

"I'm sorry, that would be unfair to Edward."

"Ok, but please try to stay safe, and if you get into trouble, I'm coming. I'm keeping tabs on you."

"Just don't freak out…" there was silence, but then she gasped.

"Bella, please wear a helmet. I don't like this."

"You don't have to, just trust me. I've done this before."

"You have?"

"I'll explain it when I get back. I've got to go. I'll be back sometime next week at the earliest."

"Bye Bella." I hung up before she could try to change my mind.

I dialed Charlie at the station; he was fine with it as long I called each night.

Then I called Hannah. She was ecstatic.

"Oh my God, Bella, you are awesome! Wait till I tell the guys! We've missed you so much!"

After I was done I ran up stairs, surprised I didn't fall. I grabbed my second duffel bag, which contained all of my skating stuff, which included my team uniform, which was a simple black t-shirt with a dented red skull on the back and black bandana that I was to wear over the lower half of my face.

I usually didn't wear a helmet, it dragged me down, but for Alice's sake I would borrow one from Hannah later.

After packing the necessities, I almost ran to the truck. The truck roared all the way down to the Cullen's house.

I parked outside of the garage. I was lucky that it was unlocked, even though it was moot point to break into the house that belonged to vampires.

Inside was the Vanquish. I put my duffel bag in the back and I drove to the bank, where I withdrew the gas money necessary to drive to Phoenix, I was glad that the gang was paying though. It was more than I would normally want to pay, even with the car's high gas mileage.

I had to admit, the Vanquish had its advantages. I got to Phoenix in a record time of a day and a half.

When I reached to my hometown, I opened all of the windows, breathing in the hot, dry, July climate. I was home, well what used to be my home.

I drove to Hannah's house, where she said I could crash until I left.

"Oh, my, god, when were you rich enough to buy an Ashton Martin?!" Hannah almost screamed as she saw me drive into her driveway. She lived in a rural community, almost in the suburban outskirts of Phoenix.

"Nice to see you too, Hannah." I hugged her. I really did miss her, it's been too long.

"No, but seriously, how could you afford it?" I laughed, I forgot that she was almost as a car fanatic as Rosalie.

Hannah took pride in her black, long hair and always had it down so it shown in the constant sunlight. She was a little over five feet and was curvy in an athletic way. She always wore black clothes, I guess you could call her a goth, but she'd deck you for that.

"It's my boyfriend's, my car wouldn't have made it, and it's ransom so he won't come down here and force me back to Forks."

"Oh, Bella has a boyfriend now does she?" She glared at me, "And you never called me!"

"I'm sorry, I was, busy."

"Busy every day for the last TWO years?"

"Yeah, I really was." She smirked.

"Oh, you were busy were you, you dirty slut you!"

"Hannah! My plate is still clean! I was just busy, emotionally."

"Oh, whatever you say…" she took my bag off my shoulder, which caused her arm to graze over my engagement ring, crap I forgot to take it off…

"Hey nice ring… Is that what I think it is!" she dropped my bag for my hand. "You're ENGAGED!!! I thought we were going to be lesbians together!"

"Hannah, that was only if we didn't find guys, you know; our backup plan."

"Your boyfriend my ass, I can't wait to tell the guys. They're going to be disappointed; they each had a plan to woo you."

Before I could answer her I heard a familiar voice from behind the door. "Is Bella here yet?" then a guy with gouged ears, black spiked hair with white tips, and a lanky build walked out of the house. He ran to me and hugged me, lifting me off my feet and swinging me in a full circle.

"Hey, Jared! You won't believe it, our Bella's engaged!"

His smile dropped, which showed that he had some plans, but a new, forced smile took its place.

"Aw man! I thought you and Hannah were going to be lesbies together!"

"Jared… I just got here, can you guys just ignore the fact that I'm engaged until I get settled in?" I groaned playfully.

"Man! I owe Smith twenty bucks; he said that none of us would- Ow!" Hannah punched his shoulder before he probably said something I didn't want to hear. He rubbed his shoulder, "I already owe him fifty."

I kind of pitied him, he was always a sucker for bets, I even won some dough from him.

"Well, too bad." I started to notice that I was starting to sweat, "Can we go in? I'm used to rain now."

"Oh, poor Bella, she's got a rich fiancée and she can't handle a little heat." Hannah taunted.

"What do you mean a rich-" Hannah turned him so he saw Edward's car. "No way! The Vanquish? There's no way I could compete with that!"

"There's no competition even without the money." I mumbled.

I led them to the front door, well, dragged them there since they didn't want to leave the Vanquish.

I walked into the living room of the house, of course, as I'd expected it, it was a complete pigsty.

"I guess I have my work cut out for me." When I lived at my mom's house, I was paid five bucks to clean my friends rooms, so they wouldn't get grounded and not be able to show up at skate practices at the local skate parks or competitions.

"We thought you wouldn't ask! But first, GUYS!!!! BELL'S HERE!!!"

A split second later, several footsteps race down the stairs and before I knew it, I was engulfed in a giant, five-person group hug.

"Bella, we've missed you!" the mixtures of all of their cologne were too much.

"I. AM. GETTING. CLAUSTRIPHOPIC!" I said in a loud voice, getting their attention.

A bunch of "sorrys" followed and the hug disbanded.

I was then in front of the remainder of "The Throwbacks", Smith, Jon, Chris, Greg, and Evan.

"Hey, I've missed you guys!" I said as soon as I got some fresh air. "How much cologne are you guys wearing these-"

But before I could finish my question, Hannah interrupted. "There's no time for reunion! We need you to get into your prime! You have three, no two and a half days to be ready for Leagues!"

"Two days! I haven't skated for two years!" I heard most of the guys' mouths pop open. I shrugged, "There isn't any pavement nearby in Forks…" I sighed, "Let me change." I grabbed my bag and ran to the nearest bathroom. I knew the house by heart, I even had my own room, I've slept over here so much. Hannah's parents were the kind that had jobs overseas and barely lived at home, so technically, it was Hannah's house and she let Smith, Chris, and Jon live here after they graduated, a year before us.

The bathroom was a mess, hair products, combs, and toiletries covered the sink and the back of the toilet.

I changed into a simple black basketball shorts and a dark grey tank top. I also changed out of my sneakers into my comfy black converses.

I walked out of the bathroom to find the guys gone and Hannah tapping her foot.

"You take forever, Bella." Then something popped into my head, Edward was returning from hunting today.

"I need to make a call; I promised Edward I would call him when I got here." Her glare deepened.

"Make it quick, your 'Edward' must be very overprotective of you."

"You have no idea." I muttered under my breath as I grabbed the cordless from the coffee table in the living room.

He picked up on the first ring.

"Bella, do you know how worried I am?" he growled.

"I'm fine Edward; I can take care of myself, let alone your car."

"What are you doing down there? Alice is blocking her thoughts and won't tell me anything! And why are you using my car as hostage?"

"Leave Alice alone, I told her to."

"I thought we weren't keeping secrets anymore."

"I'll tell you when I get back next week, I've got to go. I'll call sometime late tonight, possibly tomorrow morning." Who knows how hard they were going to push me in the next few days.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't approve of."

"Sorry, I can't make promises I can't keep, bye." I hung up abruptly; I didn't want to hear his response.

I ran to Hannah in the living room, watching 'Jackass' on Demand. "Let's go." I grabbed my skateboard and walked out into the blazing heat.

The guys were all inspecting Edward's 'formal' car; it reminded me of when Quil and Embry were inspecting the motorcycles.

"So, what do you guys think?" I asked sheepishly.

"How does your fiancée afford this? It's had a lot of work done." Chris asked, he was the guy in the gang who worried about financial stuff, along with me.

"Well, it's his foster father's car, well, technically. Edward drives it a lot more than Carlisle, and his sister likes to play around with engines…"

"This reminds me, all of you owe me twenty each!" Smith said quite proudly.

The rest of the guys groaned and handed him money from their pockets. When it came down to Jared Smith said, "I believe it's seventy now?" then Jared had to write a check.

"Don't cash it in till I tell you to. I don't want it to bounce."

"Fine."

"You're worse than Edward's brothers!" I laughed. "Well, it seems like I'm going to be at the park for the next few days, let's go."

We walked the five blocks to the skate park. It didn't change from the last time I was here.

"We'll watch what you've got." Hannah sat on a rail.

"No photography please." I posed like as if I were surrounded by paparazzi.

I ran a head start, missing my landing on my skateboard. This caused the guys to laugh so hard that they were holding their sides in pain. Hannah just glared at me.

This was going to be a long two days…

The Leagues (I was too lazy to describe the harsh training…)

We were all suited up, us all wearing black cargo shorts that cut off at the knee, our shirts, and our bandanas covering the bottom half of our faces. We looked like we were ready for a rumble with another gang.

I believed I was in prime condition, because I trained 10 hours a day for the last two days. I was now a human machine, only capable of what tricks Hannah told me to pull.

I let my human instincts fade and thought only mechanical thoughts; I was ready.

APOV

I was hanging out in the living room, watching the food channel with Edward, he wanted to get some new recipes for Bella for when she came back. It also helped him keep his mind off of Bella; she didn't call him back in the last three days. He tried call in from the number that she called from, but only a guy that seemed to be stoned picked up and said that she was "getting her ass whipped for not training the last two years." It still frustrated me that she didn't tell us that she was a skater, and that I couldn't tell anyone until she came back.

That was when it hit me. The vision was too abrupt to me to block it.

I saw a girl dressed in all black walk up to the edge of a giant U-shaped structure with a skateboard in hand. There were cameras everywhere, including a giant television camera with the logo, "X Games".

Bella was going to be on national television, it was too perfect for words.

"Was that Bella, my Bella?" Edward gasped. My mouth formed a wicked grin.

"Change the channel to the X- Sports channel!" I got up; I wasn't going to let Emmett miss this. I ran up to the game room upstairs, where Emmett and Jasper were playing some video game that included guitars.

"You guys need to come downstairs, now." I unplugged the game system.

"HEY!" Emmett half yelled.

"Do you want to see Bella on national television or what?"

"What? What is she doing? Is she on AFV?"

"No, she's on the X- Sports channel."

"What? Since when does clumsy Bella participate in a sport?"

"Evidently she's been skating before she moved here." I grumbled. I ran down the stairs.

"Are you taping this?" I asked Edward.

"Of course."

We all sat on the couch through the commercials. Several other skaters came on, three from her team. Finally, we saw Bella walk up to the half pike. (A/N- is that what it's called?)

I noticed that she wasn't wearing a helmet. Edward growled. Did she want to crack her head open?

She dropped her skateboard on the edge then dropped, skating smoothly down the side, then back up. She flew through the air and turned, forming a 360.

She landed perfectly, soaring down the side once more then flew up the other side, grabbing her board at a horizontal angle and expanded her legs while waving her board.

She kept doing stunts like this, ending with a trick that included her upside down, balancing with a single hand the edge of her skateboard, it balancing perfectly vertical on the edge of the ramp.

It was amazing, she was finally capable of doing something that we weren't.

Edward looked simply furious, but he was also trying to hide his admiration. He was obviously impressed; this was a different Bella than he's ever seen.

But this graceful moment didn't last, her landing was off and she skidded on her knees.

You could hear the profanities come out of her mouth, well with our advanced hearing you could.

Too bad Esme and Carlisle went out hunting.

"Should we head down?" I asked Edward.

"Yes, I need to get her to wear a helmet."

"I told her." He growled.

"I'll get the Volvo." He got up and soon I heard the car start.

"You guys up for a road trip?" I asked Emmett and Jasper. Jasper cracked a smile.

"I need to tell Rose." Emmett got up and ran to his room.

"You ready for a road trip, Jasper?"

BPOV

Crap! My wipe out cost us second place.

But, thankfully, there were four more events for us to grab first.

"You were brilliant, Bells!" Evan smacked my upraised palm.

"Yeah, we've got second place! In the first event!" Chris hugged us both.

"And you're going straight to the skate park! That slip made us drop a place!" Hannah barked. The celebrating ceased.

"Fine, I'll be back late enough to get some pizza." I grabbed my stuff and went to the entrance, to hail a taxi.

"Hey! Get some booze while you're at it!" Jon yelled behind me. I turned around and gave him the finger; it was our personal joke. In the seventh grade, we accidentally thought that a bottle of wine was sparkling grape juice at the New Years party we had. We were drunk after a half filled solo party cup.

The actions that followed afterwards are too embarrassing to even recall in my mind.

It involved a lot of the middle finger, that's all I'll say.

"Get it yourself!" I yelled back. Then I stuck out my tongue.

I trained in the park until dark; thankfully a Pizza Hut was on the way home.

I rang the doorbell; my arms were too full to open the door myself.

"Password?!" I heard Chris yell from inside, he knew it was me.

"Open the damn door, or I'll dump the food!" that made him open the door.

"It was 'Flying Hippopotami', but that will work." I walked in pass him.

"Got Hawaiian!" I screamed so everyone in the house knew I was back. Most of the gang was playing Halo in the living room, figures.

That got everyone's attention. Everyone almost trampled me.

After the three boxes were taken out of my hands, I went into my room to put my stuff away.

They didn't touch my room; it was exactly the way it was when I left.

All the walls were white except one that was painted black, covering the stains that Hannah and I made when we were twelve with pizza sauce.

I walked out to the living room, where the three pizza boxes were open on the coffee table. I looked in each one. They were all empty.

"I bring you guys pizza and you don't save me any?!" I half yelled to the team as they were glued to Halo.

"Fine, I'm going to Mickey D's." I started to walk out the door.

"Wait, Bells, I save you a slice, come in here with me." Jon said from the dining room.

I found him rummaging through the cabinet.

"What are you looking for?"

"My stash, I can't have Hannah confiscate any." Was he saying what I thought he was?

"You still smoke?" I grabbed the slice that was on a paper plate in the middle of the table.

"Hell, yeah."

"I thought you quit." I said with my mouth full of pizza.

"I did, but this is a special occasion."

"You should save it for after we win."

"I have enough."

"Can you smoke outside, though? I'll come out with." I chomped on my pizza, finishing it up.

"Wait, I got some booze." I laughed.

"I thought you were kidding!" he laughed.

"Come on! We'll just drink enough to make us tipsy, we don't want hangovers for tomorrow." I thought about this, a hangover would kill the team tomorrow. But I'll watch what I'll drink.

"Fine." I walked up to the solo party cups on the counter, then another thought came to me, what if Alice saw anything? Would she tell Edward? "Maybe just a whisk, it's been a while."

"More for me." He reached out of the cabinet, his face gleaming like he found the Holy Grail, and pulled out a joint.

I grabbed the wine bottle, uncorked it and poured a quarter inch into my cup. "Here, you pour yours." He poured a full inch.

He shoved the cork back in and we headed out to the front porch.

I sat on the top step next to him as he lit the joint. I forgot how nice it was, hanging out with Jon. He was one the few guys I could hang out without worrying about him crushing on me; he only had eyes for Hannah.

"So you ask Hannah yet?" I asked as I took a small sip of the wine.

He blushed, "I'm such a coward, I've let her push me around, I'm hoping she'll get a hint."

"That's no way to impress a woman! You've got to be straight forward, or she'll think that you're a coward!" I sipped the rest of my drink. I felt the alcohol take effect, not as much as New Year's, but still.

"But I am a coward…"

Suddenly, I felt a wave of machismo I felt whenever I was around the guys, bigger than normal, probably an effect of the drink. "Be the man! Show her that you are a man!" I flexed my skimpy arm, he laughed.

"You really can't hold your liquor, can you?"

"Nope, I live with a cop now, remember?"

"Oh, so what's this 'Edward' like? I want to meet him."

"I'm not sure if you'll like him, he's very, uh, formal."

"Is he one of those pretty boys?" he made a face.

"I guess you could call him that, but there's more behind the mask."

"Well, if you love him and he makes you happy, I guess I'll approve."

"Like I need your approval, it's good to know your self-esteem is that high."

He sniffed then dragged his finger from his eye to his cheek. "My little Bells is growing up." He inhaled from the joint, exhaling the smoke in the opposite corner of his mouth, pushing the smoke away from me.

"Great."

"You always knew you were the baby of the group, you're like our baby sis."

"Then why did half of the guys make bets on who would get in the sack with me?" he laughed, choking on the smoke, making me laugh.

He stopped to catch his breath.

"Those guys were just joshing your chain."

"Were they?" but before he could answer, a yellow porsche and a silver Volvo parked across the street. "SHIT!"

"What?"

"Do you have your keys on you?" I was defiantly ruining the Vanquish's paint job.

A/N- haha, I thought that this chapter was running a little long, so I'll write another!