Unfortunately my petition to borrow Carlisle was denied. Dang it! S. Meyer still owns everything! I guess I'll try and petition for Jasper.

First Sight

EPOV

My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down

"Why would she do that in Forks?" asked Emmett. "Wouldn't it be wet?"

It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix

"Oh," said Emmett.

The sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my favorite shirt – sleeveless, white eyelet lace –

"Favorite shirt! Favorite shirt?!" cried Alice. "Please tell me you're joking!"

I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka.

In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with me when I was only a few months old. It was in this town that I'd been compelled to spend a month every summer until I was fourteen. That was the year I finally put my foot down; these past three summers –

"So she's seventeen," said Emmett. "Perfect for Eddie-kins!"

"How many times do I have to tell you to STOP CALLING ME EDDIE-KINS!" yelled Edward.

"Infinity plus one," said Emmett.

Edward growled and pinched the bridge of his nose.

My dad, Charlie, vacationed with me in California for two weeks instead.

"So that's why we've never met her," said Esme.

"If this girl had decided to continue to come each summer, we would have already met her," agreed Carlisle.

It was to Forks that I now exiled myself – an action that I took with great horror. I detested Forks.

"Then why even bother coming?!" hissed Rosalie.

"Rosalie," warned Esme.

"What caused to go to such extremes," said Edward. "I mean, if she hated it, then what forced her to go? Or who forced her?"

"Oh hush, Edward," chided Alice, keeping her thoughts in the present to keep him from listening. "You'll just have to find out." Edward wasn't known for his patience.

I loved Phoenix. I loved the sun and the blistering heat. I detested Forks.

"Bella," my mom said to me –

"So her name is Bella," said Carlisle.

the last of a thousand times – before I got on the plane. "You don't have to do this."

"So it's not her mother who's forcing her to go," said Edward.

My mom looks like me, except with short hair and laugh lines. I felt a spasm of panic as I stared at her wide, childlike eyes. How could I leave my loving, erratic hare-brained mother to fend for herself? Of course she had Phil now, so the bills would probable get paid, there would be food in the refrigerator, gas in her car, and someone to call when she got lost, but still…

"Poor dear," whispered Esme, dwelling on the reversal of roles. "Did she always have to take care of her mother? When was Bella allowed to be a child?"

"Probably never," growled Edward. What type of mother, of person, forces that type of responsibility on a child?

"What's the deal, Ed," said Emmett. "You crushing on a human?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "As if!" he snorted. He didn't need to tell them that he was impress with this Bella's grasp of responsibility. He may be out of the loop where teenagers were concerned, but he didn't think those worries that Bella expressed were normal for a stereotypical teenager. Weren't teenagers regulated to taking out the trash or yard work?

"I want to go," I lied. I'd always been a bad liar, but I'd been saying this lie so frequently lately that it sounded almost convincing now.

"Tell Charlie I said hi."

"I will."

"I'll see you soon," she insisted. "You can come home whenever you want – I'll come right back as soon as you need me."

But I could see the sacrifice in her eyes behind the promise.

"Don't worry about me," I urged. "It'll be great. I love you, Mom."

She hugged me tightly for a minute, and then I got on the plane, and she was gone.

It's a four-hour flight from Phoenix to Seattle, another hour in a small plane up to Port Angeles, and then an hour drive back down the Forks.

"Unless you're a Cullen," snickered Emmett. "Then it only takes ten minutes"

Flying doesn't bother me, the hour in the car with Charlie, though, I was little worried about.

"Why would that be," said Esme. 'Is she afraid of him?' she thought, not noticing how Edward's fists clenched even tighter.

Charlie had really been fairly nice about the whole thing. He seemed genuinely pleased that I was coming to live with him for the first time with any degree of permanence.

"Why wouldn't he?" said Esme. "He's her father. Of course he would be pleased."

He'd already gotten me registered for high school and was going to help me get a car.

But it was sure to be awkward with Charlie. Neither of us was what anyone would call verbose, and I didn't know what there was to say regardless. I knew he was more than a little confused by my decision –

"So are we," said Edward.

like my mother before me, I hadn't made a secret of my distaste for Forks.

When I landed in Port Angeles, it was raining. I didn't see it as an omen – just unavoidable. I'd already said my goodbyes to the sun.

"At least she isn't acting like a drama queen and thinking that the world is out to get her," remarked Edward.

"Yeah," said Emmett, "Unlike some other people." He gazed pointedly at Edward.

Edward growled.

"Boys," warned Esme.

Emmett and Edward just shrugged and offered apologies to Esme.

Charlie was waiting for me with the cruiser. This I was expecting, too. Charlie is Police Chief Swan to the good people of Forks. My primary motivation behind buying a car, despite the scarcity of funds, was that I refused to be driven around town in a car with red and blue lights on top. Nothing slows down traffic like a cop.

"Amen," chorused the Cullen 'children'.

Charlie gave me an awkward, one-armed hug when I stumbled my way off the plane.

Carlisle frowned at the term stumbling. "Maybe the plane ride temporarily disorientates her equilibrium." 'It wouldn't be unheard of. A dramatic change in pressure, not to mention the fact that the girl had been stationary for some time could increase a chance of a multitude of potential problems which would cause dizziness, light-headedness, numbness in the legs, etc.'

"It's good to see you, Bells," he said, smiling as he automatically caught and steadied me. "You haven't changed much. How's Renee?"

"Mom's fine. It's good to see you, too, Dad." I wasn't allowed to call him Charlie to his face.

"That's right," said Esme. 'Not only is that disrespectful, it might hurt the poor man's feelings. Honestly, how would any parent feel if they not only barely saw their child, but also their child called them by their given name – like a stranger. Like they were a failure as a parent.'

I only had a few bag.

"What?!" cried Alice.

Most of my Arizona clothes were too permeable for Washington. My mom and I had pooled our resources to supplement my winter wardrobe, but it was still scanty. It all fit easily into the trunk of the cruiser.

"Now this really is a tragedy!" moaned Alice, covering her face with her hands. She immediately perked up as an idea came. "I know! I'll take her shopping."

Rosalie snorted. "Shopping? With a human?" she said with disgust.

"It's for a greater good, Rosalie," said Alice.

"A 'greater good'," Rosalie said with disbelief.

"Yes," she snapped back. "The greater good of fashion!"

"I found a good car for you, really cheap," he announced when we were strapped in.

"Cheap?!" It was now Rosalie's turn to screech.

"I don't know… something about the way he said that…" mused Jasper.

"What kind of car?" I was suspicious of the way he said "good car for you" as opposed to just "good car."

"Attentive," remarked Carlisle.

"Well, it's a truck actually, a Chevy."

"Eww," said Rosalie.

"Where did you find it?"

"Do you remember Billy Black down at La Push?"

The more hostile half of the Cullens growled.

La Push is the tiny Indian reservation on the coast.

"No."

"He used to go fishing with us during the summer," Charlie prompted.

That would explain why I didn't remember him. I do a good job of blocking painful, unnecessary things from my memory.

"Lucky," muttered Edward.

"He's in a wheelchair now," Charlie continued when I didn't respond, "so he can't drive anymore, and he offered to sell me his truck cheap."

"What year is it?"

"So maybe she's not completely an idiotic human," muttered Rosalie, which only caused Edward to growl again.

I could see from his change of expression that this was the question he was hoping I wouldn't ask.

"Well, Billy's done a lot of work on the engine – it's only a few years old, really."

"That didn't answer the question," said Rosalie.

I hoped he didn't think so little of me to believe I would give up so easily. "When did he buy it?"

"He bought it in 1984, I think."

"Once again – eww," said Rosalie.

"Did he buy it new?"

"Please say yes," said Rosalie.

"Well, no. I think it was new in the early sixties – or late fifties at the earliest," he admitted sheepishly.

"Ugh! Even worse!" Rosalie's face scrunched into disgust. 'I can't believe I actually pity her,' she thought.

"Ch – Dad, I don't really know anything about cars. I wouldn't be able to fix it if anything went wrong –

"And I wouldn't want to."

and I couldn't afford a mechanic…"

"Really, Bella, the thing runs great. They don't build them like that anymore."

"You got that right," sneered Rosalie, thinking how the newer engines were far superior, compared to the sluggish ones of made half a century ago.

The thing, I thought to myself… it had possibilities –

"Huh?"

as a nickname, at the very least.

"How cheap is cheap?" After all, that was the part I couldn't compromise on.

"Well, honey, I kind of already bought it for you. As a homecoming gift."

"Ohhhh. That is just so sweet," said Esme.

Charlie peeked sideways at me with a hopeful expression.

Wow. Free.

"You didn't need to do that, Dad. I was going to buy myself a car."

"I don't mind. I want you to be happy here." He was looking ahead at the road when he said this. Charlie wasn't comfortable with expression his emotions out loud. I inherited that from him. So I was looking straight ahead as I responded.

"That's really nice, Dad. Thanks. I really appreciate it." No need to add that my being happy in Forks is an impossibility. He didn't need to suffer along with me.

"Wow," murmured Edward. "A selfless human being."

And I never looked a free truck in the mouth – or engine.

Emmett busted up laughing. When the others didn't join him, he looked around. "What? It was funny." Seeing as no one was going to agree, he merely shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, now, you're welcome," he mumbled, embarrassed by my thanks.

We exchanged a few more comments on the weather, which was wet –

"D'uh," said Emmett.

and that was pretty much it for conversation. We stared out the windows in silence.

It was beautiful, of course. I couldn't deny that. Everything was green: the trees, their trunks covered with moss, their branches hanging with a canopy of it, the ground covered with ferns. Even the air filtered down greenly through the leaves.

It was too green - an alien planet.

Emmett once again started laughing. "Alien planet," he chortled, and then proceeded to make 1950's stereotypical alien noises. "In the far reaches of the Washington galaxy, we see the Cullen aliens and their massive teeth of death!"

"Shut up, Emmett," said more than one Cullen, and Rosalie proceeded to smack the back of Emmett's head.

"Ow!"

Eventually we made it to Charlie's. He still lived in the small, two-bedroom house that he'd bought with my mother in the early days of their marriage. Those were the only kind of days their marriage had – the early ones. There, parked on the street in front of the house that never changed, was my new – well, new to me – truck. It was a faded red color, with a big, rounded fenders and a bulbous cab.

"I can't believe I feel pity for that girl," said Rosalie. "What an ugly truck!"

To my intense surprise, I loved it.

"What!" shouted Rosalie. "Is she insane? Or just an idiot?"

"Shut up, Rosalie," snarled Edward.

"Gees, man. Defensive much?" said Emmett.

I didn't know if it would run –

"I'd doubt that, too," said Rosalie.

but I could see myself in it. Plus, it was one of those solid iron affairs that never gets damaged – the kind you see at the scene of an accident, paint unscratched, surrounded by pieces of the foreign car it had destroyed.

"Maybe we can see how it'll hold up against a Volvo," Emmett snickered.

"No!" shouted Edward.

"Wow, Dad, I love it! Thanks!" Now my horrific day tomorrow would be just that much less dreadful. I wouldn't be faced with the choice of either walking two miles in the rain to school or accepting a ride in the Chief's cruiser.

"That would be awkward, not to mention embarrassing," said Jasper, empathizing (no pun intended) with the teen.

"I'm glad you like it," Charlie said gruffly, embarrassed again.

It took only one trip to get all my stuff upstairs.

"That's it!" said Alice. "I am taking her shopping even if it kills me!"

Jasper's arm around Alice's waist tightened. "Alice, please don't ever say anything like that," rebuked Jasper.

I got the west bedroom that faced out over the front yard. The room was familiar; it had been belonged to me since I was born. The wooden floor, the light blue walls, the peaked ceiling, the yellowed lace curtains around the window – these were all a part of my childhood. The only changes Charlie had ever made were switching the crib for a bed and adding a desk as I grew. The desk now held a second-hand computer, with the phone line for the modem stapled along the floor to the nearest phone jack. This was a stipulation from my mother, so that we could stay in touch easily. The rocking chair from my baby days was still in the corner.

Edward could easily visualize Chief Swan rocking back and forth in a rocking chair, with a pink bundle in his arms. Briefly, the image changed to a young woman rocking her own child.

There was only one small bathroom at the top of the stairs, which I would have to share with Charlie. I was trying not to dwell too much on that fact.

One of the best things about Charlie is he doesn't hover. He left me alone to unpack and get settled, a feat that would have been altogether impossible for my mother. It was nice to be alone, not to have to smile and look pleased; a relief to stare dejectedly out the windows at the sheeting rain –

"Remind you of anyone?" Emmett asked, again gazing pointedly at Edward.

and let a few tears escape.

"Poor dear," whispered Esme.

I wasn't in the mood to go on a real crying jag. I would save that for bedtime, when I would have to think about the coming morning.

Forks High School had a frightening total of only three hundred and fifty-seven – now fifty-eight – students; there were more than seven hundred people in my junior class alone back home. All of the kids here had grown up together – their grandparents had been toddlers together. I would be the new girl from the big city, a curiosity, a freak.

"Welcome to the club!" boomed Emmett.

Maybe, if I looked like a girl from Phoenix should, I could work this to my advantage. But physically, I'd never fit in anywhere. I should be tan, sporty, blond – a volleyball player, or a cheerleader, perhaps – all the things that go with living in the valley of the sun.

Instead, I was ivory-skinned, without even the excuse of blue eyes or red hair, despite the constant sunshine.

"She could fit in with us," joked Emmett.

I had always been slender, but soft somehow –

'Soft…' Edward purred, before stopping that thought in its track.

Obviously not an athlete; I didn't have the necessary hand-eye coordination to play sports without humiliating myself – and harming both myself and anyone else who stood too close.

Emmett guffawed as he shook his head. "Can't wait to see her in action!" With that, he threw his head back and let the amusement roll over him and continued to laugh for another fifty-seven seconds, until Jasper finally forced him to calm down.

When I finished putting my clothes in the old pine dresser, I took my bag of bathroom necessities and went to the communal bathroom to clean myself up after the day of travel. I looked at my face in the mirror as I brushed through my tangled, damp hair. Maybe it was the light, but already I looked sallower, unhealthy. My skin could be pretty – it was very clear, almost translucent-looking – but it all depended on color. I had no color here.

"Dude, she could seriously fit in with us!"

Facing my pallid reflection in the mirror, I was forced to admit that I was lying to myself. It wasn't just physically that I'd never fit in. And if I couldn't find a niche in a school with three thousand people, what were my chances here?

"Oh," Esme whimpered, her thoughts filled with pity and love for this human child who apparently was forced to grow up too soon and alone among her peers. Even though they tried to stay to themselves to keep the secret, it could not stop sweet Esme from loving.

I didn't relate well to people my age. Maybe the truth was that I didn't relate well to people, period. Even my mother, who I was closer to that anyone else on the planet, was never in harmony with me, never on exactly the same page. Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain.

"Nah. If anyone has a glitch, it's these two freaks," Emmett jibbed.

Both Edward and Jasper let out a warning growl, while Alice pouted.

"Don't call my wife a freak, moron," snarled Jasper.

"That's enough," said Carlisle, ever the peacekeeper. 'She said that she saw things differently from others? I wonder why that is? Is it a dormant power? Or is her neuro pathways wired differently? Or is it that she's just more observant? I pray it isn't the last one.'

Edward shrugged, not used to having to wait for answers. He was so accustomed to picking the answers out of people's heads and simply waiting for them was trying.

But the cause didn't matter. All that mattered was the effect. And tomorrow would be just the beginning.

Adventures in Real Life:

My niece was at that age when toddlers can start trying solid foods. She may not have much hair, but that girl already had a full set of choppers at an early age. As hard as it was to get her to forego the yogurt, we finally had success with apples. And she loved them, loved sinking her teeth into the fruit's meat. Whenever she saw an apple slice, she would scurry as fast as her cubby legs could go towards the food. One day, while myself, my sister, and my mother were watching a princess movie with my niece, I was hungry and decided to get myself a snack – an apple. As I cut a slice, my niece waddled toward me and gazed longingly at the red apple. I must say that I love that girl to the point of spoiling her, and so I stretched out the hand holding the apple slice. My niece took a few steps, grabbed the apple instead, and left me with the slice. I sat there, mouth a gapped and eyes blinking as she went back to watch the movie.