This is my first fan fiction .. and I would be BEYOND thrilled and appreciative if ya'll give it a chance! I have about 5 chapters written so far, but I will post them one at a time, testing my response. thanks all!

Chapter One: Flood

all I knew and all I believed

are crumbling images

that no longer comfort me. (mjk)

Bella POV: 'Welcome to the house of the royally fucked," I thought to myself as my social worker pulled up in front of the Cullen Mansion. It was ridiculously massive, and looked as if it belonged on a Southern plantation rather than smack dab in the middle of a Forks, Washington forest. Dr. Cullen was famous for reeling in stray kids with nowhere left to go, and I was sure that the expensive house was just a part of the show. And from my vast experience, I knew appearances could be deceiving. When something was beautiful on the outside, it usually meant the inside was a piece of work. Drifting from foster home to foster home had taught me none other than that.

It wasn't as though I wasn't somewhat used to it all. The constant shifting of familiar faces, the packing and un-packing, the TV dinners and Laundromats and cat litter. I was used to the common perils of typical foster homes. Obviously, the Cullen mansion wasn't exactly typical.

But I was. I was probably the most typical foster kid who would ever walk through these doors. I had textbook written all over me. Drugs, sex, psychotherapy, fights; you name it, I'd done it. Or gotten kicked out because of it. Shield the eyes from the less tangible madness was how I usually let myself think of it. Try not to remember certain images; pictures of limitless earth and convalescent dawn, cacti and jackrabbits, the way the road curved just left, and then very sharply right …

I turned my head back to Sally, and I realized she was talking to me. I pulled my headphones from my ears and shrugged. "Missed that," I muttered.

"It's fine, dear," she said, opening her car door and motioning for me to do the same. "Dr. Cullen, as I've said, is an extremely generous man, and I don't think you will be left wanting here." She stopped walking suddenly, and turned to me with a somber look on her face. "I pulled a lot of strings to get you set up in a place like this, Bella. This is truly the crème de la crème of not only the foster system, but pretty much anywhere. Hell, I wouldn't mind sitting pretty in a home like this for a time!" She paused, and I knew she was recalling Dr. Cullen's face from the picture that was attached to my file. He was pretty striking. Plus, I caught a glimpse of some Harlequin romance novel tucked in her satchel, so I knew Sally was more than just a prim and proper social worker. It was too bad the father figure was the hot one- I would never be lucky enough to shack up with some gorgeous fake sibling. I sighed, and braced myself for the four other teenagers I knew lived here as well.

Sally was still talking. "So please, try to control your outbursts. I don't want to have to worry about you for a long while now."

'Yeah,' I thought. 'Not that much longer. 18 in in 7 months, and then I'm outta here.' I figured I could make do in these plush conditions. I'd had worse. 'Much worse,' I let myself think with a shudder.

Sally and I walked up the brick paved walkway to the Southern style winding porch, and rang the doorbell.

EPOV: Rosalie was looking at me through the reflection that was cast from the vanity mirror she was sitting in front of. I think she was talking. I saw her mouth moving; her eyebrows running up and down as if for emphasis on something. My song had had yet to climax, and I was pretty serious about not interrupting music that I'm listening to, especially one band in particular. I looked down at my Ipod, realizing I still had two minutes and forty eight seconds before the song ended. Maybe if I threw another shirt or outfit her way it would hold her interest long enough to leave me alone.

Suddenly Rose was at my side, pulling my Bose headphones away from my ear, and screaming at me. "ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME, EDWARD CULLEN?" She shrieked, anger flashing wildly in her eyes.

I glanced up at her, thoroughly disturbed that she had the gall to interrupt the song I was listening to. Especially since it was THE song.

"No, Rose, obviously I wasn't," I said coldly to her. I wasn't about to lie; it didn't matter to me either way what she thought. Which was funny … and somehow wrong, since I had been dating and fucking her for nearly three years.

"Always stuck in your own little head, Edward," she sighed, hands mounted on her voluptuous hips. If Rosalie was anything, she was certainly beautiful. However, her beauty was easy to decipher and surely conventional: the tits, the blond hair, the straight white teeth; all of it was something I'd easily see while flipping through a swimsuit catalog. So why didn't it satisfy me?

"I was not in my head," I muttered, finally pausing the song and taking the headphones fully off. "I was in someone else's."

"Well snap out of it completely," she instructed, flipping her blond waves with a flick of her wrist. "Carlisle's new stray is set to appear any minute now. And from what I hear, this one's no kitten. In fact, she may be particularly feisty."

Oh shit. I had completely forgotten there would be a new arrival today. It was just my luck: I had, after all, just barely gotten used to the company of Emmett these last few months. My sister Alice and I had been in it together since the beginning; and even though she wasn't my blood sister, I still felt biologically connected to her in some strange way. I guess maybe it was because she came to stay with Dr. Cullen so soon after me. And Rose … well, let's just say Rosalie arrived at a time in my life when a very particular itch was in dire need of getting scratched. And Rose certainly had claws …

"Yeah, got it," I said, finally allowing myself a full glance at the woman standing before me. She was wearing a just-barely-there silk robe, and it was parted seductively at the curve of each of her breasts. It was belted loosely, and as she was standing in a pose that suggested her frustration, a tan bare thigh was exposed. I reached my hand over, and, without looking at her, ran it up that thigh and into the dark wetness that was still hidden underneath silk. Just as I suspected, Rose was going without underwear. I allowed myself a smirk. "What?" she said, a hint of aggravation peaking through her voice, which had gotten suddenly huskier.

"Nothing," I muttered, allowing the hand to fully creep up and settle into her. "I just know you, that's all."

"Okay," she whispered, fully undoing the robe and throwing it on the metal bed frame. "But we have to hurry-new girl's gonna be here any second. And Carlisle won't be happy if we're not there to greet her."

"Uh-huh," I whispered, pulling her fully toward me. Whoever this new girl was, I'm sure she could wait just a little while longer while I got off. After all, she had better get used to it if she was going to live here. If Rose and I were anything, we were definitely not quiet.

I allowed myself one last thought of the new girl, though it wasn't a pretty one. Hope this bitch knows what she's in for. And with a throaty groan, I sank fully into the soft tanned curves of Rosalie Hale.