Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

Read on, my lovelies!

"Life Starts Now"

"Your name, your face is all you have left now
Betrayed, disgraced, you've been erased
So long, so long I have erased you
So long, so long I've wanted to waste you
So long, so long I have erased you
I have escaped the bitter taste of you"

Chapter One: Bitter Taste

Bella Swan

"Emmett!" I yelled. "Are you coming or not?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be right there, Bells!" he shouted back, leaning away from the trunk of our mom and step-father's SUV.

I shook my head at his booming voice and turned back to my mom.

"I'm going to miss you so much," she said, attempting to hold back her tears.

"I know, Mom, I'll miss you, too."

A few crystalline tears dropped from her eyes. "Oh, my babies! I miss you both already!"

I nearly rolled my eyes, but managed to restrain myself. I knew this wasn't the time for my sarcasm. "It's not like we're leaving you forever, Mom, we're just going to live with Charlie. Besides, you know you want to be able to travel with Phil."

"I do, baby," she sniffed, "but I'm going to miss you two so much."

I sighed as our flight was called. "I love you, Mom."

Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. I felt almost bad for not crying, but I wasn't really big on emotions. Especially showing them. She pulled me into a tight hug and repeatedly whispered "I love you" into my ear. I hugged her back tightly, remembering the feel of my mother's warm embrace. Hey, I may not have been big on emotions, but that didn't mean I didn't love my mother.

Phil stepped in, "Renée, you have to let her go or they're gonna miss their flight."

I looked at him with grateful eyes, silently thanking him. He nodded back at me. Finally, Mom released me from her death grip. I was so happy that Phil had said something, because if he hadn't, I had a feeling that she would have never let me go.

Renée wiped her eyes as Emmett walked over to us, carrying his luggage along with one of my bags. He dropped his hold on the stuff and pulled Renée into one of his infamous bear hugs. Seriously, I call him Emmy-Bear for more than just his bear-like appearance. He actually did resemble a bear with his impressive physical features. He was huge—bulky, muscular and tall, but in no way fat. I don't mean 6' tall, either. I'm talking 6'5 here. He has short, thick, curly dark brown hair, the same color as mine, and his deep blue eyes nearly always sparkled with mirth.

As he pulled away from Renée, he grinned at her, revealing his child-like dimples. When people first see Emmett, they automatically assume that he's some sort of badass, rebel, hooligan that's going to go on a killing rampage or something. But he's not even close to being like that, though he does love pranks. He may be "scary" on the outside, but he's really just a kid at heart and you can see that when he smiles.

Physically speaking, it was hard yet so easy to tell that Em and I were twins. Hard, because if you look at us quickly, you can't really tell. Sometimes people mistake us as a couple. Emmett and I used to be completely disgusted when people thought that, but now we just have fun with it—make a joke and make people seem like complete idiots when they realize that we're definitely not dating.

Easy, because if you actually take the time to look at us, it's like the most obvious thing in the world. We were both naturally tall and quite muscular to be honest. He was obviously bigger than I by a mile, but still. I wasn't that tall at 5'7, but most girls around me were 5'4 or less, so I classified myself as fairly tall for a female of my age. I wasn't bulgingly muscular like Emmett, and I wasn't grotesquely muscular either—not at all like those bodybuilder women you see; yuck—but I could hold my own and kick some serious ass. I was mostly just toned really well, I guess.

I had done kickboxing during my youth, thanks to my dad, Charlie, being a protective police officer of a father. If Emmett didn't have his special advantage, I'd probably be able to take him down. I had curves in the "right places" as the few females friends I'd had told me, along with my mother—wide hips with a narrow waist—and my pale legs were long. Like really long. People often told me I was beautiful, gorgeous, stunning even, and although I accepted their compliments with a smile plastered on my face, I wasn't so sure about that. I accepted that I was pretty, but I didn't see myself as the strikingly beautiful supermodel type.

Despite our muscular, tall builds making us look a like, our eyes tell a different story. While his are that sweet deep, sapphire blue color, mine are chocolate brown rimmed with a pretty gold color. Maybe that's how people mistake us for a couple rather than siblings. But then we have the same deep, dark chocolate brown colored hair. My hair is naturally pin-straight and hangs down to roughly my hipbones, but when it's in waves, or curls, it goes to just below my waist.

Our facial features are somewhat similar, but at the same time, nothing alike. I was given mostly my mother's features—heart-shaped face, thin nose, and slightly almond-shaped eyes—while Emmett got our father's features—face slightly square with roundish eyes—minus the dimples. Honestly, we're not really sure where those came from—Granny Swan, maybe?—but they should be illegal when Emmett's trying to get his way. All he has to do is whip out the dimples and there's pretty much no way to deny him what he wants. That's another similarity between the two of us. While I don't have dimples, I do have what Emmett calls "the best puppy dog eyes and pout known to man." He once told me that no one can possibly resist or deny me what I want when I bring out my pout, let alone when I add in the watery, puppy dog eyes.

Emmett and I also both share the same ultra pale white skin, though his is a tad darker than mine, but hardly, and the trait of never being able to tan without burning. We lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and we're nearly pale enough to be albinos. There must be some sort of dysfunctional gene somewhere in us.

But we already knew that.

"I'm gonna miss ya, Mommy," Emmett whispered. He was such a kid at heart, but definitely didn't come off as one. He turned to me and said, "Let's go, Bella Boo, the plane's going to leave without us if we don't hurry up." He picked up his luggage.

I grabbed my own bags and smiled at Renée and Phil. "Love you, Mom," I mumbled, lightly hugging her once more. "Bye, Phil." I gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Love you, Mom. See ya, Phil," Em said.

Emmett and I made our way through the crowd of people gathered at the airport. People here, there, and everywhere saying hello and goodbye to their loved ones as they embraced and smiled and laughed.

We were quick to board the plane, and soon we were ascending into the sunny sky.

I pulled out my beat-up blue second generation iPod nano and hit play. As the opening rifts of Hearts Burst Into Fire began, I leaned my head against Emmett's shoulder. I glanced up at him and saw that he was starting to listen to his own old green iPod. He smiled down at me and I smiled back, then looked down and closed my eyes. I felt as he leaned his own head ontop of mine.

He wasn't just my brother, nor was he simply my twin; he was my best friend. He was overprotective, childish, obnoxious and silly, but he was my brother. He and I hardly ever fought. We agreed on pretty much everything; food—most of the time—sports, cars... He always knew how to make me feel better, whether it was a hug I was in desperate need of, someone to talk to, or just an ice cream cone, he knew. And I knew that I was the same for him.

God, I loved my brother.

As I drifted off into a dreamless slumber, I began mentally preparing myself for the dreary, rainy town of Forks.

"Bella," I heard a distant voice say as I was shaken lightly. "Bellllaaa."

I groaned and mumbled a nearly unintelligible, "What?"

I heard the voice chuckle. It was a familar, deep laugh. "Get up, Bella Boo."

"Five more minutes."

I could practically hear the person roll their eyes. "Seriously, Bells, the plane has already landed and we're gonna be left on here if we don't get our crap and get off soon."

I opened my eyes and squinted as they adjusted to the brightness. Groggily, I said, "I slept through the whole flight?"

Emmett nodded. "Yeah. I did, too, but my headphones fell out when I was asleep, so when the plane landed and everyone started moving, the noise woke me up."

"Oh," I said softly. I got up out of my seat and stretched. I yawned as I ran a hand through my tangled locks, then sighed. "By the way, Em, the flight attendents and pilots aren't going to lock us on the plane—they come and scope for people, smart stuff."

He grinned his innocent, dimply grin at me. "I know, Bell."

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my stuff and pushed passed him. When I heard no footsteps following my movements, I spun around and raised an eyebrow at him, "Coming?"

He grabbed his own items and caught up to me, then grinned. "Yeah, yeah, c'mon sis," he said, mussing my hair.

"Emmett," I snapped, glaring at him as I slapped his broad chest with my free hand. "Non toccare i miei capelli," I growled. I wasn't a girly-girl, therefore I did not care when my hair got messed up, but I had a thing about people touching it. I don't know why, but I simply hated it. It bothered me without reason. Well, unless I was going to sleep, then I found it suddenly soothing, but when I'm awake...no touchy.

Emmett replied, "Siamo spiacenti, Bells."

You could probably already figure it out by now, but in case you haven't, we're Italian. If my name being Isabella couldn't help you out there, then I'm sure that Em and I speaking flawless Italian would probably be a dead giveaway. Both Renée and Charlie's sides of the family were Italian, and we had grown up for the first six years of our lives listening to it all around the house and we easily picked it up. But that was before they got a divorce.

Charlie and Renée were high school sweethearts. They were married straight out of high school and became pregnant not long after with me and Emmett. They were young and scared, but excited beyond belief. They were in love. The first few years were great, but when we turned five, things began getting a little shaky in their marriage, and a few months after our sixth birthday, they got a divorce. Renée took both Emmett and I with her to Arizona. We went to Forks and visited Charlie each summer until we were twelve. Then, we became sick of it, and instead, we spent the summer with Charlie in California or other various places around the world. We'd gone to Italy, Paris, Greece, Australia, and a few other places. Charlie never really got over Renée until she remarried and he realized that she was never going to come back to him. I knew he still loved her, but he was happy for her and had even dated around a little now.

I rolled my eyes again and huffed. "Let's go."

After we made our way through the crowded Port Angeles airport and retrieved our luggage, we practically ran outside.

For a town so small, even though Port Angeles was still larger than Forks, there were way more people in the airport than there should be.

Renée had both of our cars shipped over from Phoenix to our new home in Forks. We were thinking about having Emmett's brought to the airport, but decided on allowing Charlie to pick us up instead. So when we walked out of the airport and saw Charlie standing there, waving madly at us with a bashful grin underneath of his mustache, it was no surprise. He looked like he did years ago, still quite young for his age with light wrinkles dawning his face.

When he grinned at us, his eyes crinkled and I could tell why Renée had fallen for him so easily. He looked so much more youthful and happy when he smiled like that.

"Hi, Dad," I said, not even breathless though I had just run across an entire airport, lugging my bags with me.

"Daddy!" Emmett boomed as he caught up. If he had been smaller, it wouldn't have surprised me if he had dropped his bags and launched himself into Charlie's awaiting arms.

But life wasn't like the movies. Emmett was at least double Charlie's size in muscle, and a few inches taller than him. So that wasn't a very likely thing to happen. At least not without killing Charlie, or maybe just breaking something of his. Probably his back.

Charlie pulled me into a warm, fatherly embrace and I returned it wholeheartedly. I may not have been one for emotions—I got that from Charlie—but I still hugged the life out of my dad when I saw him, especially after so long. I really loved him; he was the greatest dad out there. I pulled away and Emmett scooped Charlie up into his arms.

When Em finally let him go, he coughed, "I've missed you kids."

Emmett grinned, "Aw, Daddy, ya missed me? Don't worry, I'll be here forever and ever. You'll never get rid of me."

Charlie actually looked slightly frightened. Probably for his life.

Don't worry, Charlie, I would be, too.

"I've missed you, too, Dad. It's great to see you," I said honestly.

He smiled.

I picked up my bags again and Charlie's smile fell into a frown.

"Emmett," Charlie chastised. "You made Bella carry all of her bags? Couldn't you at least help her with one?"

"Hey, Pops, it's not my fault. Baby Bell over here has a six pack. She can handle it on her own."

Charlie looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "Six pack, huh?"

I bit my lip and nodded nonchalantly. "Sorta," I shrugged. "Just toned abs. All thanks to you for getting me into kickboxing and Mom for shoving me into dance."

I used to be such a weakling, not to mention clumsy as hell—thank God for my 'special advantage'. Swan being my last name did not suit me. Now, it was much different. I had toned abs, defined biceps and every other muscle because of kickboxing and dance, even though when people see me no one suspects that I would have the muscles that I do. Renée had put me into ballet when I was only three years old to help enhance my balance and grace. It worked. I was now really graceful and could dance quite well, to be honest. I was agile, lithe and a very fast runner.

Yeah, I'm not always the most modest person around.

When I was first put into dance, I hadn't wanted to stay. Although, admittedly, that was mostly because I fell off the stage at my first recital and took half of my class with me, which not only left me to be the laughing stock for ages, but also left all the other kids with a hatred for me. After a while, though, I grew to love it and ended up joining multiple dance classes on top of ballet. I took pretty much every dance you could name.

And then I grew bored of dance and stopped going.

Charlie grinned proudly at me. "No one's getting close enough to touch my baby girl without getting themselves injured or killed."

Emmett waved his hand in a careless manner. "Yeah, yeah, we all know Bella would kick ass if anyone tried to touch her. Can we go now?" His voice took on a whining quality near the end.

We arrived at Charlie's car—or should I say police cruiser?—in record time and quickly loaded our luggage into the trunk.

I grinned to myself, "Shotgun!" I yelled.

Unfortunately, Emmett had the same idea as me and at the exact same time, he yelled, "Shotgun!"

Sometimes being twins was really annoying. We often subconsciously did things in unison.

We glared at one another and slowly inched our way toward the passenger door.

"I called shotgun first!" I said.

"No, I called it first!"

I could hear Charlie's rough chuckle in the background. "How about neither of you get shotgun?" When we turned our glares on him, he continued with a crinkly grin, "You're both sitting in the back. Maybe I'll turn on the sirens and make the townspeople think you're criminals."

I didn't even have to look at Emmett to know that he had an excited grin on his face. Even as a child he adored going in Charlie's cruiser and being driven around with the lights flashing and sirens blaring.

Really, I never understood why he found it so fun and amusing. I just thought it was embarrassing.

Okay, so it was a little fun, but I'm grown up now.

I nearly snorted at myself for that one. I could easily be one of the most immature people ever. But eh, at least I know when to be mature.

When we saw that Charlie was most definitely not joking around, we simultaneously released sighs and clambered into the back of the police cruiser, me grumbling profanities under my breath, while Emmett had a huge grin on his face.

As we seated ourselves, I released a large yawn.

Emmett looked at me. "You still tired?"

I nodded, "Apparently."

He patted his lap, "C'mon."

I grinned and slid over to him, then laid down on the seat and placed my head in Emmett's lap.

He smiled back and kissed my forehead. "I love you."

"I love you, too," I mumbled tiredly.

It wasn't long before I was lost in dreamland.

A/N: What do you all think of this so far? I know it's not a very long chapter, but I've already got the next couple set to be uploaded. But I'm only going to upload if I get enough reviews, so you may want to leave one if you enjoyed this chapter. Things will get more interesting as the story goes on—don't worry, it's not all fun and games—but I had to set things up. I know Bella's quite OOC, and the others will be too, but I'm still keeping them as themselves, y'know? (that makes no sense, but whatever ;))

I will be putting links up on my profile to go with this story, as well. Chapter songs, pictures, etc.

In case you care to know, here are the translations:

Non toccare i miei capelli - Don't touch my hair
Siamo spiacenti, Bells - Sorry, Bells

(I speak no Italian, so if these translations are wrong, blame Google Translate, not me).

Please review!

- dawn mae