Disclaimer: This is my first fan fic so please be patient.

SM owns the stuff… I'm just piddling in my free time.

I was ready to get out of Forks. Ready to break out on my own and be free of this dull and lifeless town. I had vowed 2 years ago when my mom practically begged me to move in with my dad that I was getting the hell out of dodge as soon as I graduated high school. Now that my dad had remarried that vow was more important than ever. Both of my parents were happy with their new partners and I was still alone. I tried to date, but honestly the boys here just didn't get me, too caught up in the ways of small town life to know much about big city ideas. Not to mention it was horribly embarrassing to walk into school on Monday after a date with someone like Mike Newton. Everyone knew where you went, what you did, or in my case, didn't do.

I had no desire to give anything away to any boy that could match up to my intelligence level. So a quick peck on the cheek at the end of a date was all I was willing to offer. I was fine with it, just as long as I could remain friends with these boys at school, I'm sure they could satisfy their more primal desires elsewhere. I'd successfully kept my virtue through my entire high school pilgrimage. Any parent's dream… I wonder if they made awards for that.

Now that the last few weeks of senior year were winding down, I had to focus on a lot of things to keep my priorities straight. Finals were next week, which were shaping up to be a piece of cake. I had a few more college applications to mail out before the deadlines arrived. I had told my parents that I wanted to go to UCLA so I could at least be close to Phoenix and Forks. What I hadn't told them is that I applied to NYU and submitted my most dazzling application there. I prayed day and night the school would accept me into their arts program. The further away from this "big happy family" syndrome I could get doing something I loved, the better.

Then there were the senior trip plans that the school had thrown together at the beginning of this year. Apparently in this town the school makes a senior trip somewhere as an entire class right after graduation. This year the staff had planned a 10 day trip to Europe, stopping in England, France, Germany, Italy, Greece then wrapping things up in Spain before heading home. While I dreaded being stuck in hotels and trains with the majority of my fellow classmates, all of my friends were going and I definitely wanted to see Europe before I headed off to college.

I scanned through the paper I was finishing up for AP English on my Mac Book outside during lunch. It was one of the rare sunny days in Washington and everyone was enjoying the weather. Mike Newton sat on the picnic table to my right talking to Eric Yorkie. Jessica Stanley was buzzing in my ear about her weekend plans. Angela Weber had her nose buried in the latest Sookie Stackhouse book across from me and Tyler Crowley was off throwing a football around with the jocks. Ben Cheney was out sick for the day, allergies or something. All of us made up what Jessica liked to dub as "the crew". We hung out together in school, out of school and always had each other's backs.

I typed up the last line when a football hit the table and bounced right into my face.

"Hey Tyler!" Mike yelled across the small space, "Why don't you watch where the fuck you're aiming?!"

Mike, ever the over protective guard dog.

"Mike, I'm fine." I winced as I pawed my nose. I didn't think it was broken…

"So fine that you're about to bleed all over yourself?" he smirked.

"Umm yea."

I pulled my fingers from under my nose and fresh crimson littered my fingertips. 'Great' I thought. Just what I needed, another trip to the nurse's office. About that time Tyler ran over to our table to give his apologizes for bad aim and retrieve the football. Jessica was still in shock and Angela's mouth was hanging open on the other side of her paperback.

"You might want to shut that Ang, you'll catch a fly in that thing." I chuckled.

Her jaws shut with an audible snap and her eyes wrinkled with a smile. Eric came running back to the table with a wad of cheap cafeteria napkins. This wasn't exactly the first time I'd been injured since moving here and my little band of buds were ever the ready for my bleeding, broken or clumsy episodes.

I held the napkins to my nose and shut my laptop with my other hand. Thankfully Jessica emerged from her stupor in time to help load my books and stuff back into my bag and help me carry it to the nurse's office.

"So I know this is probably a really bad time to ask this, but do you want to go shopping with me this weekend? I need some new clothes before we go on the senior trip." Jessica chirped in my ear.

A few students wandering the halls gave me strange looks as we passed them. Me with bloody napkins pushed to my face and Jessica being her overly chipper self asking about shopping. Why did the nurse have to be on the other side of the campus?

"Um where do you plan on going?" I asked in a nasally mono tone.

"Seattle silly! I told you outside! Did you not hear anything I said?"

She looked hurt, and I didn't like to see her pout but I honestly just remember a steady buzzing in my ear, not coherent words or locations.

"Sorry Jess," I smiled through the paper, "I was a little… distracted."

"So do you want to go? I was thinking about asking Angela and we could make a total girl's night out if you want. I think my parents would be okay if the two of you spent the night since it will be a whole day thing…"

I nodded my head in agreement and made tentative plans pending on permission from my dad and step-mom. I hated that I now had to get her blessing on everything as well. At least mom's husband Phil would let me be free to do as I please. With my mom's free spirit ways he just knew better than to hold me down.

We rounded the last corner as Jessica buzzed on and I could see the nurse's door down the hall. The clock hanging in the hallway told me I had about 15 minutes to get in and get out before AP English started. I needed to turn in this paper and be done with it. About midway down the hall Lauren Mallory aka the school bitch emerged from the girl's bathroom putting her lip gloss back into her Louis Vuitton purse. No doubt she had just finished up some heavy petting with her latest fling and had to readjust her makeup before merging back into full bitch mode. She heard my sneakers squeak on the titles and turned to glare at us, her blonde hair swishing with the movement.

"Trip and smash up your face again Bella? Too bad you never had much material to work with." she sneered and clicked off in her heels the opposite direction.

When she was out of earshot I looked to Jessica and rolled my eyes.

"What a bitch," we chimed in unison.

The nurse's office was empty as we entered the doorway. Ms. Avery jumped up from behind her desk when she saw me enter. Unlike the nurse last year, she didn't make me sign in and go through the 20 questions to find out what was wrong. I silently thanked the gods for that. She led me to the back room and I hopped up onto the examining table making the paper guard crackle. Jessica filled the empty seat in the corner and started playing with her phone. Probably texting Angela since she felt it was her duty to stay with me until I was released or she was hoping to get out of Chemistry. Either way I was happy to have her company.

Ms. Avery strapped on some latex gloves and removed the wadded up napkins from my nose. The bleeding had slowed as she had enough time to pass me hand sanitizer to clean up my fingers. She took a cotton ball and applied some cleaning agent and cleaned up the area before taking a closer look. The smell burned my nose and I winced as I reflexively wrinkled it in distaste. It hurt, but no where near as bad as when I had broken it when I was 10. Flipping over the handlebars of your bike and landing face down on the asphalt was not fun.

Jessica noticed my wince between texts.

"Do you think its broken Ms. Avery?" she questioned.

"No," she responded in her little British accent, "Just a lil' sore from the impact. The bleeding is almost done it seems. How'd you manage this one Bella?"

My cheeks turned a light pink. Ms. Avery had been handling my mishaps all this year and I'd lost count after 20.

"I was minding my own business when all of a sudden…"

"Tyler Crowley chucked a football in her face," Jessica blurted out not looking up from her current text.

"It was an accident," I assured Ms. Avery after hearing her audible gasp.

I heard the first bell to release the lunch crowd chime out in the hallway. 'Wonderful' I thought to myself as I prayed for the bleeding to stop. Unlike Jessica, I hated missing a class, even if it was one where I had read most of the material they were working on. I didn't want to miss out on turning in this fabulous report on the beginnings of American literature. I spotted Jessica smiling at me from the corner as she watched my eyes bounce from the wall clock to the door. She knew I only had about 5 minutes until the late bell rang.

I looked glumly at Ms. Avery.

"Do you think I can make it to AP English?" I questioned, growing more nervous every second.

"Sure Bella, if you can stay out of harms way I don't see why not."

The bleeding must have stopped so I grabbed my backpack and purse from the end of the examining table and hopped down making the paper crackle again. I shot Jessica a smile of victory and a thank you and bounded off down the hall.

I must have looked like a hot mess as I skid into the doorway of my English class, my sneakers making a terrible screeching sound on the hallway titles. All of my class was staring at me, even the teacher as I crossed the threshold right as the bell rang. I smoothed my wild hair back and took my seat.

Angela peered at me from the seat next to me in the back row. While I liked going to class, I didn't exactly like being up front where the teachers liked to call on students from. Too much attention was brutal and embarrassing. Angela saved me seats whenever she was here, fighting off the jock boys like a mean cat. This was our row and she let everyone know it.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I slid it out as Mr. Dorcey turned to write the assignments for the day on the board. I had 3 text messages, one from Mike, one from Jessica and the last had just come in from Angela. Angela wanted to know if I was okay, Jessica wanted to confirm I was going to ask my dad about this weekend and to inform me I needed to powder my nose "Rudolph" and Mike also asked if I was okay and to inform me that he'd given Tyler an earful after he found out from Jessica I was okay. I chuckled inwardly at the vast difference in my little network; All so different but a part of a whole. I locked my phone and shoved it back into my pocket so I could concentrate on the class work.

Thankfully Thursday was my short day since I didn't have to take gym as a senior. I'm sure my dad as well as the nurse's budget for supplies was thankful for that blessing. After emailing Mr. Dorcey my paper and getting a response to see him after class I hung out at my desk for a few prolonged minutes. Most of the other kids were gone or filing out to head off to their last class of the day. After packing up my things, I approached his desk quietly. I'd hoped that the paper was as spectacular to him as it was to me when I wrote it.

"Have a seat Ms. Swan." he motioned. I plopped into the first desk in the row.

"Bella is fine." I mumbled under my breath. I'd been correcting him all year.

"So I had a look at your report for the final project and I must say I'm amazed. I think you have great potential in the field of English histories."

I smiled. I didn't want to be a teacher or someone that studied the workings of past English literature. I liked books and I liked reading them but I loved art more than anything.

"I also wanted to extend the offer to you for letters of recommendation for your college applications should you still need one."

"I have a few left to send out this weekend," I replied. Even if I wasn't going into the field of English, a few more teachers than I already had vouching for me couldn't hurt.

"I'll have 5 typed up and sealed for you tomorrow afternoon. Be sure to stop by and pick them up." He turned back to whatever he was looking at as the late bell rang for final period. I took that as my mark of being dismissed.

I adjusted my backpack as I walked out to the parking lot to get in my truck. I looked up to see that the sky was slowly clouding back up covering the warm sun. Hopefully the rain would hold off long enough. My truck stuck out like a beacon now even though it was older than all of the cars in the parking lot. My dad's new wife had insisted that Charlie have it painted to cover the rust and flaking paint that used to litter the sides. I loved it the way it was, but after many arguments with my dad I finally just gave in. It wasn't worth fighting with him over something he couldn't control. She was running his life and I hated it. The bright red reminded me of her fake fingernails.

I couldn't be mad at my truck because of her foolishness; it had served me well for the past 2 years. It's a shame I couldn't take it to New York. The poor thing wouldn't survive the trip, that's if I got in.

I opened the door and slid across the bench seat into position. I noticed a Post It note on my windshield and groaned because I had to get it off before going anywhere. Who in the world does stuff like that? I climbed out and grabbed the intruding slip of paper and peered at it curiously. It was Mike's handwriting.

"You, Me, Saturday night First Beach." – M

I groaned again, more audibly this time. Last time I went out with Mike was right before junior prom and it was mainly just to get him to stop asking. I knew he wanted me to go to prom with him but I vehemently refused not only to save myself the money, but the embarrassment. We ended up going to the movies and while it was fun, it was awkward. He wanted to sit in the back row and make out and I wanted to do anything but that. We ended the night with a quick hug on my porch and that was it. He told everyone in "the crew" and in the junior class that he was going to kiss me but my dad was watching through the curtains with his gun on his side so he chickened out.

Why Mike thought it was a good idea to lust after me when I didn't want to be anything more than friends was beyond me. I knew Jessica had the hots for him and Lauren was attempting to have her way with him whenever she could get her claws out of her current fling. But why me? I wasn't anything special or even beautiful in comparison to the other girls in my class. I was average with my brown hair and brown eyes. I dressed in a non-attention grabbing fashion and didn't market myself as anything more than a good student and a great friend. So why me?

Fat rain drops started falling on my windshield and I realized I'd been sitting in the parking lot pondering things for 30 minutes alone. I shut my truck door in a hurry and turned the key that brought my truck to life. It still sounded like a monster when it ran, but I refused to budge on "fixing" anything else that wasn't wrong with it.

I drove home in silence, humming a tune in my head as I usually did. While the rain was calming, it also made me sleepy but I wasn't into the few radio stations my truck radio could pick up. I pulled into the driveway thanking my lucky stars that the house would be empty. Maybe I'd get lucky and I could finish laundry and dinner before either of them came home. I could hide out in my bedroom all night.

My sneakers squeaked on the drive way as I locked my truck and ran for the covered porch. It had started to rain extremely harder than necessary giving how nice the weather was this morning. I sighed and fished through my keys until I located my house key. I smiled at my Skelanimals keycap that Angela had given me for my birthday. I liked weird things like that.

I about jumped out of my skin when the front door suddenly opened without my assistance. Someone was on the other side of the screen door, blue eyes bearing into mine.

A/N: So there you have it… chapter one of the fun inside my head. Did I do okay?

Playlist I jammed for this chapter:

Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch

Motion City Soundtrack – Make Out Kids

Manchester Orchestra – I've Got Friends