Disclaimer-I just muck around with the characters...they're not mine.

Aright folks. I got a little tired writing Divine Intervention last night and felt like I needed some characters with different personalities for a little while. I'll be alternating between writing this and D.Int from now on. Now that I have this chapter done, going back to writing the other story should be easier. I hope that makes sense.

Like I said, these characters have different personalities than my other story/ies. I've had this idea in my head for months and months, so I finally got my baby off note paper and on the screen.

I hope you like it, it's something a little different from me.

Bella POV.

After another late shift last night, for use of a better word, I was fucked. I'd rolled out of bed late this morning and only after having a record braking fast shower and skipping breakfast, had I managed to make it to school on time.

I tripped my way into school, literally. My face only managed to miss its meeting with the floor thanks to my neighbour, Emmett. "Hey there kid, eyes on the road…" he joked as he got me back on balance.

"Thanks for the advice officer" I yawned sleepily as I walked away, smiling to myself from hearing his booming laugh from down the hall.

I sat through my morning classes, idly wondering if I could somehow acquire, either lawfully, or unlawfully, some matches to hold my eyes open. The monotony of school seemed much worse on Friday's. Each week was the same with me. While other students began to get hyped up and exited for the weekend, I did the opposite.

Working at the bar until 1am was a usual occurrence for me, but occasionally Vinnie, my boss would let me leave early, closer to midnight on a Thursday night because I had school the next morning. Bless his kind heart for remembering, every once in a blue moon.

Friday and Saturday nights tended to go on for longer because of the bigger crowds. On those night's I might not make it home until two or three o'clock. Sundays afternoons were my favourite days to work. I could go in at mid day, clean the place down and finish at four, then get back home ready for dinner and to have a long soak in the bath before heading to bed early.

The lunch bell rang and I headed to the cafeteria and bought myself a soda and a sandwich before slipping outside to sit on one of the benches. I ate alone, glad for the silence, glad that I didn't have to keep up a conversation with someone when I felt almost too tired to even make myself eat. Regardless, I ate while I tried to work out if I could manage to get my homework done after school before getting ready for work and leaving the house at around 5pm. At least with working nights, I could get my homework done on Saturday morning or afternoon, but sometimes it was just a relief to get it all done and out of the way on the Friday.

I finished my sandwich and toyed with the bottle top to my drink while I patiently waited for the lunch hour to come to its end. I yawned another eye watering yawn and then I heard them.

"Look at her, skank…such a looser…" Lauren and Jessica's barbs washed right over me. I'd heard all their snide comments countless times over before and by now; it was just interesting to see which old recycled insult they would come out with next.

I couldn't muster up the energy to retort, so I just touched my hand to my head, as if to tip my hat to them. Bitches. Seconds later, I heard that familiar voice of my next door neighbour, Edward. "Shut up" he snapped at the bitches as he came toward me. "See you in class" he muttered in passing as he gave my shoulder a small squeeze.

I glanced down at my watch and realised that there was still another five minutes to go before the bell would ring, signalling the end of lunch. I had biology next with Edward, the one class where someone sat next to me of their own free will. Edward and I couldn't really be considered as friends per se, but I suppose he and his siblings, Emmett and Alice were the only ones that drew close to being my friends. Jasper and Rosalie also fitted into the same category, being linked with the Cullen's through their fairytale relationships with Alice and Emmett.

Once the bell buzzed, I hauled myself up and headed to Biology, ready for another tedious lesson.

I walked into the clinical biology room and sat down at my desk before pulling out my books and resting my forehead on them. Edward would wake my up if I fell asleep.

After what was probably a good minute, but only felt like seconds, Edward slammed his bag down on the table. I jumped at the noise and sat up, feeling a little bewildered. I must have dosed off during the time I had been resting, or maybe I had become a little lucid at the least.

"Afternoon sunshine" he chuckled brightly as he sat down beside me.

"Cullen." I greeted him back shortly. I tried my best to suppress another yawn, but it wasn't happening. I dropped my head back down on the desk, but turned my head to face Edward's direction. I stared blankly at the wall on the other side of the room, forgetting what was going on, just letting myself become catatonic and still. My mind needed to shut off for a minute or two before it was thrashed with today's lesson.

I frowned as Edward's head blocked my view. He'd mimicked me and dropped his head onto the desk as well. His sly smile widened as I frowned deeper at him. I couldn't be bothered to ask him to move, but I began to hear some noise around me.

"Is the preacher at his pulpit?" I asked in a whisper as I blinked slowly.

"Yes the teacher's at his desk" Edward replied with a chuckle before sitting back up.

I groaned as silently as I could and sat up as well. I dropped my elbows to the table and cradled my face in my hands while I listened to the teacher talk.

"As long as you haven't had a piercing or tattoo's in the last year and have a high enough iron count, anyone can give blood, obviously there are other factors, but you'll find out about that on the day, if you give blood…"

I caught snippets of what he was saying but decided that I'd just ask Edward later what today's assignment was. "Miss Swan, I do hope that you are listening behind those hands…" Mr. Banner called over the class.

I dropped my hands to the desk and recited, "Yeah, if you've had a tattoo or a piercing in the last year, don't bother going to give blood because…" my sentence trailed away as I took in the sight before me and actually absorbed what he had been saying. Blood Typing. "Ohhh fuck that!" I recoiled in my seat as my eyes zeroed on the little pictures that went with the blood-typing poster that had been taped to the white board.

"Excuse me Miss Swan?" Mr. Banner said slowly as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Shit I swore…" I smacked a hand to my forehead as I realised that I'd unintentionally swore again. "Sorry, but there's no way you're getting my blood…" I held up my hands in front of me and shook my head.

"That's fine Miss Swan, just remain seated for the remainder of the class and keep quiet." I could tell that he was pissed off, but I was not staying in this room.

"Ohhh fuck no. I'm not staying in here with all that blood" I declared as I stood up and chucked my books into my bag.

"Miss Swan, you will sit back down for the remainder of this class and attend detention tomorrow. I do not take kindly to being swore at."

"Sir, she doesn't like blood, I hardly think that's fair." Edward spoke up beside me. I turned to look at him, wondering why the hell he was putting his neck on the line because of me. Banner was pissed; he evidently wasn't going to take much more shit.

"Mr Cullen, I didn't ask for an opinion on the matter." I could hear the anger in his voice, looking at his beetroot face only confirmed how riled he was.

I glanced over to Edward and caught a sly grin tugging at his lips. I wondered what he was up to now. I hoped he'd shut up, I didn't need the guilt of his detention on my shoulders too. "I know you didn't ask, I gave my opinion anyway" he announced in a kind enough tone, but I heard the under-laying rebellion in his voice. His eyes seemed to sparkle with mischief as he stared back at Banner who had gone past red and had skipped onto a fuming maroon.

"Out! The both of you and detention tomorrow at 9am!" He bellowed.

I saluted him silently before quickly making my way out of the class, Edward hot on my heels.

"What the fuck was that about?" I hissed at Edward as I marched down the hall toward the exit door.

"Come on, you don't like blood…" Edward tried to reason as we exited the hallway and made it outside.

"I already had detention in the bag, I would have walked out of the class, you didn't need to stick you oar in and get in trouble." I sighed in irritation and I marched toward my truck. I didn't see much point in hanging around now, might as well go home and get cracking on the homework before tonight's shift.

"No, no…no need to thank me for sticking up for you back there…" Edward teased as he headed toward his own precious Volvo.

"Whatever bad-ass, see you tomorrow!" I called before hopping into my truck. I turned the heater up as high as I could; needing to warm up now that Autumn was here and the weather had started turning cold.

After getting home, I got most of my homework done and then crashed on the sofa for a little while to get some shut eye. The house was colder since the weather had changed in the last few days so I pulled the blanket from the back of the sofa and tucked myself in.

I also only put the heating on for an hour at night so I could get some hot water for a shower. I managed alright with just bundling up in big hoodies and blankets, so that saved me having to pay too much on the bills. Electricity was the same. I dreaded the winter when I would have to use more electricity because of the dark mornings and nights, but if I kept up the hours I had now, I budgeted that I should manage.

I had to learn the whole money thing a while back when Charlie left. He'd left with his fancy woman, promising to send me money each month to help me pay the bills. To be fair, he did deliver for the first three months, but after that, I got nothing. I fended for my self pretty well now and didn't need his money.

I woke up to the sound of the alarm on my phone. I yawned and stretched on the sofa before getting up and heading up to my room to get ready for another night of work. Just as I was climbing the stairs, my cell began ringing. I didn't have a house phone, I decided to have that cut off and just go with the cell, it made things easier and more private.

Jacob's name and picture flashed on the screen. I couldn't help but smile. He was the one constant person in my life, the one true friend that I had. He had taken me under his wing when first I got the job at the bar. He taught me how to make drinks, told me what sort of clothes I would need to wear in order to earn me some extra cash with tips. He generally looked out for me and stuck with me if Vinnie ever decided to lay into me after another round of my klutziness with breaking a glass or something.

"Hey Jake, what's up?" I could hear the muffled sound of people laughing and music in the background. He must have been in work already.

"Orders from Vinnie, you're supposed to go for the rock-chick look tonight. He wants to see if you can pull it off, plus a load of bikers are supposed to be stopping in tonight…you know how he gets, he wants to make the place look good…" I could hear the exasperation in his voice. Neither of us liked Vinnie, and we made no show of hiding are distaste toward him, not that he cared. All he cared about was having the cash register full by the end of the night.

"Alright I'll give it a go Jake…" I replied as I walked into my bedroom, wondering how I would rustle up that kind of look from the mismatch of work clothes that I had.

As I rummaged through my clothes, I could hear the background noise on the other end of the phone dispelling. "Hey how was school today kid?" Jake asked after I heard a door close on his end.

"Same old, same old…" I sighed. "Where are you? In the cellar?" I guessed.

"Yeah I'm pretending to change a barrel…" he answered. I heard him yawn and wondered how the hell he would manage working the late shift if he was already tired.

"Did baby girl not sleep too well last night?" I asked. I knew that his little daughter Lilliana was at the teething stage right now.

"Nah, she was alright…just woke us up a few times." He yawned again before he quickly added, "Hey, she stood on her own today, no one helping her…" I could hear the pride and joy in his voice and felt my heart warm.

"That's great Jake. Did Leah get it on camera?" I asked as I pulled out a black wife beater from the mangle of clothes. That would have to do.

"Of course, she gets everything on camera." He laughed back. "Hey, I need to get back to work, I'll see you later."

"Mhmm sure thing" I replied before flipping my phone shut and chucking it back on my bed.

By six o'clock, I was parked out back of the bar. I checked my refection in the mirror once more, frowning at the stranger looking back at me before I hopped out and locked the door.

I reached the back door and found Jake outside, chatting on his phone. As I drew nearer, I gave him a smile and nodded my head, which he returned.

"Ahhaa, yeah, Honey just head over to Billy…yeah…he'll be fine, you just go sleep in my old room for a while…yeah…" I signalled to him silently that I was going in, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me to his side and shook his head while listening to Leah on the other end of the phone. Jake anchored me to his side with his heavy arm on my shoulders and I quickly checked my painted black nails while I waited, wanting to make sure that none of the colour had chipped off yet. I thanked god that I was wearing my big warm coat, even thought it was early, it was cold…plus I was scantly dressed.

"Yeah, bye love, bye." Jake slipped his phone into his pocket and then looked down at me. I looked right back up at him, a cheesy smile slapped on my face.

He barked out a laugh before holding me back out at arms length so he could see how I looked. He started from my head and worked his eyes down. I'd left my hair down and not done anything too it, just left it to wave naturally, I'd applied some eyeliner and black eyes shadow for that smoky look and then I wore a black wife beater, a denim mini skirt and then I threw on black fishnets and the big boots for measure. That was as close to rock chick as I could manage at such short notice and Vinnie was going to have to like it or lump it.

"Hey, looking goo-" Jake stopped mid sentence and his eyes shot back up to mine when he got to my feet. "What the hell are those?" he laughed as he pointed to my feet.

"Boots" I stated simply with a shrug. They were the only black, relatively rock chick footwear I had. They were black walking boots that I used to wear back in the day when Charlie wanted to go fishing. They were a necessity back then due to the woodlands that we walked through.

Jake laughed once more before shaking his head. "They'll have to do…but I'm getting you some proper boots…" he rolled his eyes at me as he held the back door open.

I tugged off my coat as I went inside. "You're not buying me boots…" I replied in the most stubborn tone I could muster up as I clocked myself in on the machine.

Vinnie walked in just as I finished talking. He gave my feet one look before rolling his eyes and stating in a tired tone, "He's buying you boots." He left the room just as quickly as he came in, leaving Jake tapping me on the head condescendingly.

Let me know what you think of it so far. I'm so exited about getting this story revealed.