If You Can't Beat'em Join'em

Chapter 1

I am so happy to escape the newlyweds and be here in Forks, WA. Well, not completely happy. I will miss my mom, and the sun, but that's about it. I stepped off the plane and was greeted by Charlie. Of course he was wearing his police uniform and brought the cruiser. Why couldn't he bring something more…normal?

"Hey Ch-Dad," I said giving him a little hug.

"Hey Bells. Are you excited to start school tomarrow?" he asked smiling at me. I was glad that he was happy I was coming to live with him. I hadn't been to Forks since I was twelve.

"Yeah, I am. Do they have a softball team?" I asked knowing that the season is starting really soon.

He bit his lip and gave me a nervous smile. Uh oh, what's going on? "Actually Bella, they don't have a softball team. They haven't had one for about five years."

"Are you kidding me?" I asked angrily. Softball is what I do. That's my thing. And I will not let the small town of Forks take it away from me. "Do they have a baseball team?" I asked as a plan started to form in my head.

"Bella, I don't want you to try out for the baseball team," Charlie said figuring out my plan as we drove down the high way.

"You don't think I could make it?" I asked incredulously. If he doesn't think I can make it, he's insane. I started getting offters for college scholarships last year, when I was a sophomore.

"That's not it," he reassured me quickly. "I just don't think the boys will like that and I don't want anyone to get hurt." When he says anyone, I'm pretty sure he means anyone who wants to keep me from playing my sport.

"Dad, I'm not going to fight with anyone about it. I'll show up to try outs and see what happens. I know I'm good enough, and maybe if they know that too they'll give me a chance," I said coolly. And if they don't hand over they chance I'm willing to forcefully take it-but Charlie doesn't need to know that.

"Okay, I trust you Bells. Just be careful," he said smiling at me. He loves that I like playing softball/baseball so much. "Try outs are at 3:30 day after tommarow," he added looking back at the road.

I smiled widely at him. He had already looked it up just incase I wanted to join. Maybe living with Charlie won't be as awkward as I thought.

Beeeeeeeeeep! I smacked the top of my alarm clock hard. It fell with a crash to the floor. I'm not a morning person, and anyone who wakes me up will feel my wrath. I sighed and crawled slowly out of bed and into the shower. The warm water loosened my muscles and woke me up. I blow dried my hair and put on sweat pants, a white adidas t-shirt, and my nikes.

"Hey Bella," Charlie said looking up from the newspaper he was reading.

"Hey Dad. I'm going to be a little late getting home. I'm going to practice a bit and I would rather not break any of your windows if I don't have to," I said smiling slyly at him. I've broked about every window in this house playing softball.

"Sure Bella, but be back before it's dark. Okay?" he said smiling a bit remembering how proud he was that his only daughter could hit the ball harder than all the neighborhood boys.

"Okay Dad, see you later," I said slinging my backpack over my shoulder and grabbing my softball bag. When I opened the door I stopped in surprise when I saw the old red truck parked in the drive way. I turned around and called into the house, "Dad, whose car is that?"

"Yours, I hope you like it, keys are in the ignition," he said simply.

I squealed like any other girl and said, "Thank you!" I ran out the door and hopped into the truck. I loved it.

I was a little bit relieved when I pulled into the school parking lot and saw that my car didn't stick at all. It was filled with older cars-except on shiney silver volve parked right in the middle-but it was still nice. I left my softball bag in my truck and headed to the main office building.

"Hi, I'm Isabella Swan," I said to the older lady behind the desk.

"Of course, here is your schedule, a map of the school, and that piece of paper right there has to be signed by all of your teachers and returned here at the end of the day," she said pointing out each one of the papers on her desk.

"Thanks," I said before turning to go out the door.

"Have a nice first day," she said pleaslantly.

I looked at my schedule:

1 period: English

2 period: Trigonometry

3 period: Free period

4 period: World History

5 period: Lunch

6 period: Biology

7 period: Gym

I smiled happily when I saw that I had a free period. That gave me extra time to be ready for tommarow. I put m schedule back in my pocket and headed towards the building marked English. When I stepped inside I handed my slip of paper to the teacher and went to sit in the back of room so I wouldn't be stared at.

My first half of the school day went by in a blur of names gossip. By lunch I already knew the people I should avoid and the ones that are okay to talk to. For example I should avoid Lauren Malorey-the school slut-and Edward Cullen-the school player. It's also okay to talk to Angela Weber-the quiet girl in my English and World History class-and Mike Newton-the boy who showed me to my Trigonometry class.

So when lunch rolled around I contemplated sitting next to Angela but changed my mind when I found out we could eat lunch outside. I went over and sat on the bleachers by the school's baseball field and started eating my lunch. I wasn't really paying attention to anything when someone came up behind me and said, "Hi, I'm Jessica Stanley, you must be new here."

I turned to see a fairly short, girl with curly brunett hair and a large smile planted across her face. I smiled pleasantly at her and said, "yeah, I'm new. Bella."

"It's nice to meet you Bella, we have a couple of classes together," she said before sitting next to me. "So, where are you from?"

"Arizona, I came to live with my Dad," I told her.

"Wow, really warm down there, huh?" she asked smiling.

"Yeah, it was nice, but I really like how green it is here," I told her glancing at the cropping of trees that surround the back of school.

"You get used to it. We were wondering if you wanted to join the cheerleading squad," she asked suddenly.

"Huh?" I asked completely confused. What makes her think I would join the cheerleading squad?

"Well, Lauren Malory is the cheerleading captain and I'm co. captain and we think you have the cheerleading look. So, do you want to join?" she asked still smiling at me.

"Uh, no?" I said, still stunned that she would ask me to join a sport without even knowing if I can do it at all. Wait, the look? What's that supposed to mean?

"Why not?" she asked frowning now.

"Because I don't like cheerleading?" I said, making it sound more like a question.

All of a sudden another girl popped out of nowhere. She had blonde hair and scowl on her face. "What do you mean you don't like cheerleading?" she sneered at me. I'm guessing this is Lauren.

"I don't think High School cheerleading should even be considered a sport. Unless you guys can do as many stunts as college squads can do, your not anyone's time," I told her honestly. As much as I would like to say cheerleading as a whole is not a sport, that would be a complete lie. I've seen some college squads and couldn't imagine doing some of the stuff they do, but high school cheerleading is just stupid.

"I doubt you could even make the squad," she snapped back.

"Didn't you just offer me a spot? So didn't I technically already make it?" I asked raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"Your messing with wrong person," the said glaring at me.

"Or maybe I'm messing with the right one," I said my glare matching hers.

She looked at Jessica who was silent this entire time and snapped, "let's go Jessica, she's not worthy of being on the squad."

Jessica followed Lauren without a backwards glance at me. I shrugged to myself, I don't want to be friends with anyone who would be friends with that anyway.

I was about to put my ipod back on when I heard a bunch of people laughing from a little ways behind me. I turned around to see a group of four people looking at Lauren and Jessica's retreating figures and laughing histerically.

The two boys in that group caught my attention first. One boy was huge and muscular with brown hair, the other boy was pretty tall and had honey-blonde hair. There were also two girls, one was blonde and could be a super model, and the other was short with black spikey hair.

I shrugged to myself again and turned to look back at the field. Just as I was about to take a bite out of my sandwich someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and saw the two girls who were laughing with those other guys standing behind me. Wow. They looked like models.

"Hi, I'm Alice," said the short girl. "We just wanted to tell you that that was the funniest we have ever seen in our entire lives," she said still laughing slightly.

"Yeah, no one has told off Lauren in a long time. It was pretty cool," the blonde girl said smiling at me.

"Um, thanks. I was just being honest," I said shrugging.

She smiled even more. "I'm Rosalie by the way," she said.

"Bella," I said smiling at her.

"We should really-" Rosalie started saying but was caught off by the bell.

"I guess we should go to class, but we should talk sometime," I said picking up my garbage and jumping off the bleachers.

"Definitely," Alice called before she turned to walk away.