Prologue

"Nessie, Nessie"the voice called. My eyes shot open at the bright surroundings, as I squinted through the brightness of the sun, I could see that I was in a meadow of beautiful yellow daffodils. It was breathtaking, the sky was clear, not a cloud to be seen. I could smell the freshly cut grass and the lovely aroma of the flowers.

Then the realisation hit me. This was a dream. The haunting dream I had as a child, a memory maybe, of the day my mother left me.

"Nessie, Nessie" the voice called again.

"Mommy" a little voice came from me, a voice of a child. I looked down at my hands in shock, small hands not that of a 16year old, and the clothes I was wearing; a green satin dress with bows and tiny black patent shoes. I was 6yrs old, this was the day my life had changed and I would now be alone.

Chapter 1: The last day of summer.

That morning I awoke early, as I twisted and turned in the oversize bed trying to get comfortable. Just a few more minutes I thought. Then the dreaded alarm sounded. "Grrrrr" I grumbled aloud.

Turning around, I flopped my hand down hard on the alarm clock and then slid out of bed. It was not quite light but then why would it be, it was 5am!!

"Are you up Ness?" A gruffly man's voice spoke out.

"Yeah" I replied, I bet he could tell by my voice that I wasn't happy. That was my Grandfather Charlie. He was the sheriff, always on time to work, and for the past 6 weeks I've had to get up early and accompany him to work all day everyday. Sitting in his office playing stupid solitaire on the pc and twisting in his chair making myself dizzy, bored stiff. It was the most boring time of my life and to make things worse it was summer! I suppose it was my fault. If only I had just been good then I wouldn't of had this awful punishment.

I staggered to the bathroom, looking into the big mirror. Nothing had changed over night, I was still me, copper colored curly hair and chocolate eyes. Quite pretty, but in that girl next door type of way.

It suddenly hit me, this was the last day of summer, and tomorrow I will be going back to the dreaded Forks High school.

At that point, I ran out of the bathroom, hurried down stairs, and flew the kitchen door wide open, startling Charlie and Lydia in the process.

"What the heck!" Charlie said surprised. They were both sitting at the kitchen table eating what I could only describe as Lydia's full fat breakfast. Bacon, eggs and sausages. mmmm. I lost track for a minute just smelling the lovely food.

"Why aren't you dressed, I have to leave in 10 minutes!" Charlie shouted. I snapped out of my trance.

"Well…" I stuttered "Here's the thing Gramps. it's the last day of summer…and..' Before I could finish he quickly answered "NO"

"Oh come on Charles, she's been punished enough, let her just have one day" a sweet voice answered, it was Lydia. She was probably trying to get in my good books; she and Charlie married a few years ago. And since she met me, has tried to be a mother figure to me. Probably because she had no children of her own.

"Please gramps, I promise I won't get up to mischief…I'm really sorry" I said sweetly.

"You bloody should be, disgracing our family name by graffiti all over the town's statue!!" he said angrily.

"Kate and I scrubbed it off and wrote a letter of apology as well…Please, I've learnt my lesson"

"That Kate is a bad influence on you" he said quickly. I looked down at my feet as he started to drone on about being mature now and how he had never had this much trouble with my mother…Hang on I thought...I looked up with the furious look in my eye.

"I'm not her!!" I shouted. "For Jeez sake…" As I stormed out.

"Ness, Ness, listen I didn't mean it like that" he said getting out of his chair and trying to chase after me. I ran up the winding stairs to my room and slammed the door hard.

"Grrrrrrr!" I shouted aloud. Then there was a quiet knock at the door. I swung it open nearly taking it off the hinges. It was Charlie, looking surprising calm.

"Listen Ness, I'm sorry ok…I don't was us to fall out. I was angry…" he stuttered. "I don't mean to compare you to Bella at all; I know you're . . . your own person and everything. Its just I love you as my child and I just can't understand why you have be such a rebel all the time"

"I'm sorry" I said without thinking. Looking at his face, I knew he was thinking of her, he was heartbroken when she left. It was like she died. And he's been mourning every day since.

"Listen.." he said, interrupting my thoughts of her. I looked at him. "Stay here today; help Lydia out with the groceries or something ok?" He gestured a hug to me, and I went into his arms hugging tightly and nodded. A few moments later he released his arms, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and turned towards the stairs, "Bye you two see ya later" he called as he walked downstairs. I could hear Lydia chatting away to him before I heard the door slam.

"Ness, Be ready in an hour hun" she called up the stairs.

"Okie dokes" I shouted back. I shut the door, and suddenly had a thought. Yes! I'm free for one day! I'll help Lydia and then sneak away when she has her afternoon tea with her friends.

I ran to the dresser, thinking what I could do. See Kate? Go to the Beach? I pulled out some skinny Black jeans with a Purple top, ran into the bathroom getting changed into them in a flash. I sorted out my unruly hair and then hunted for some shoes. No doubt the dog had eaten them like he always did…hang on where was he?

I stepped out of my room calling "Rufie, here boy" and letting out a little whistle. Where could he be? He couldn't exactly hide anywhere, he was big chocolate Labrador. Then I heard a little squeak…that's his toy. He must be up here somewhere. Walking further down the corridor, I peeked into Gramps and Lydia room.

"Rufie you in here?" I whispered through the gap in the door…no noise. Then I heard another squeak coming from Mums old room. I hurried round the corner to the end and opened the door which let out a loud creak. Shit I thought, I hope Lydia didn't hear that. She probably didn't, she was pretty deaf. I peered in, sort of still standing in the corridor, and looked over at the bed.

There he was chewing his favorite squeaky bone on her bed…Shit! I had no choice but to enter.

"Rufie get off the bed!!" I whispered loudly. Luckily he did what I said and jumped off, licking my hands as I bent down to tap him on the nose. "Go on, out you go…" he did what he was told, and walked casually out wagging his tail.

Looked around the unfamiliar room, I had only been in here a couple of times, and it always looked the same. Clothes were on the floor and there was clutter everywhere. Jeeze she was messy, I thought. I wasn't allowed to touch anything in there; Lydia wasn't allowed to clean it. It just stayed exactly the same. The way she left it. It was like a shrine. Often when Gramps was nowhere to be seen, we knew he was in here. Looking at photos and just reminiscing about the past.

I walked around, looking at the photos on her desk of her, Gramps and Gran; she's so beautiful I thought. My attention was suddenly drawn to the piles of postcards and letters on the side. I snatched them up, studying them quickly. I had seen them all before. Postcards from Italy, Germany, New York… There were no new ones.

She used to write to us every month but then it suddenly stopped a few months ago. She mentioned me in every letter, saying how she hoped I was ok and how grown up I must look. We could never reply to these letters as her and dad used to move around so much. Poor Gramps, he jumps over to the mat every time he hears the letterbox go, hoping there is just a scrap of something from her. Just to say they're ok. He was lucky to of spent time with her! I always asked myself why she never came back home. Didn't she want to see me? Or maybe she didn't even want me.

I can't even remember what my father looked like, there were no photos... Nothing.

Apparently he was very handsome and had the same copper curls that I had. So he's to blame for my unruly hair, I thought smiling to myself.

I suddenly snapped out of my thoughts. "Ness are you ready?" A sweet voice called.

I chucked the postcards back where I found them and closed the door behind me quietly.

I walked casually downstairs, where Lydia was waiting at the bottom struggling to put on some trainers. I slid past her on the last step.

"Oh there you are, your shoes are where you left them" she said slightly annoyed. Oops I must have left them somewhere awkward in her very clean house.

"Shoes belong in the cupboard Ness!" she said looking over to the kitchen, where the door was wide open. There were my black scruffy looking converses.

"Sorry" I said walking over to them, then squeezing my feet in without undoing the laces.

"Come on girl, hurry up"

"Sorry" I said again, grabbing my bag on the way out. I followed her out the front door, slamming the front door behind me. I could see Rufie going ballistic in the living room window. He hated it when anyone left. I waved at him, and then jumped in the front seat of car.

I loved Lydia's car it was a cadiallac 1958 in royal blue, i'm very surprised that its still running.

"Seatbelt" she instructed. I smiled and did what I was told. Then we set off.

As we drove down the familiar roads of forks, I recognized some people from school. A few of the jocks were hanging around the sports shop. And there was some young nerdy kids going into the bookstore on the corner.

Lydia pulled into the café parking lot, Oh god there're loads of people that I recognize here and not the nice kind of people either. As Lydia parked up she muttered to herself about some kids, who were on skateboards, something like 'they had better not go into my car'.

"Right, you don't have to hang round with me all day, out you go, I'm sure your desperate to meet up with Kate and your other friends"

"Really?" I looked puzzled.

"Just make sure you back before 5 and for god sakes don't go anywhere near the police station! Your grandfather is doing paperwork today so he won't be roaming around"

"oh, ok …thanks, see you later then" I said getting out of the car.

"Bye Hun" she said as I closed the car door gently.

The heat hit me as soon I stepped outside; it was an unusually sunny day. I walked across the parking lot feeling uneasy; people were staring at me as usual. There goes the weird one again they would say. I hurried into the café hoping Kate was in there . . . and she was. A sigh of relief blew over me. She was sitting amongst some boys as usual; obviously flirting as she was twisting her long blonde hair round her fingers and giggling like an idiot.

I walked up closer, her eyes suddenly lit up.

"Nessie!!, Oh my God! Excuse me boys" she said trying to escape from the crowd of boys. Running over to me, she flew her arms round my neck giving me a squeeze.

"I've missed you, it's been ages!"

"We spoke last night on msn you peanut" I replied.

"I know, but I can actually SEE you!!! I mean Charlie could of been impersonating you on the net, I thought he had you locked up or something" she laughed.

"I've been in that stupid police station haven't I?!"

"God I thought you were joking" she said still laughing. Everyone avoided the police station like the plague. I had told Kate many times that I was there, hoping she would visit, but then who would want to in that run down building.

"Sit with us" she said trying to tug my arm over to the table.

"I kind of thought we could catch up, just us two" I said hopefully. She looked over at the table of cute college guys then looked back at me.

"No worries, we'll see them next year eh Ness? Bye boys" she said.

"OH….Bye Kate" they mumbled back.

"Where shall we go?"

"Let's just walk" I said as we hurried out of there and started walking randomly down the high street.

We chatted about everything, mostly what she did over the 6 weeks without me then going back to school. We bumped into a few people, who greeted us politely then sniggered behind our back. They were probably talking about the latest stunt we did with the graffiti. Oh well... who wants to be ordinary in this boring town we would say.

"So any news from your mum?" she asked me.

"Nope. Not a single letter, postcard nowt" I replied.

"Don't worry about it hun, you can have my mum, she's pain in the arse" she said trying to lighten the atmosphere; she probably could tell from my disheartened face that I was unhappy with the situation.

The rest of the day we spent gossiping about people from school and looking into shops followed by a meal at the cafe. I didn't want the day to end. Soon it will be tomorrow when the taunting starts again and I will be miserable.

Next thing I knew, I was rushing home with just 5 mins to spare before gramps would step through the door. I was relieved as I kicked off my shoes casually put them in the cupboard before Lydia had a chance to moan. I slumped on the Green couch in the front room and flicked through the channels on the TV…boring shows that I seen twice over.

"Oh thank god…" a voice said making me jump out of the seat.

It was Lydia, covered in what I could only make out as chocolate icing. "Your home, at least your grandfather didn't find out, I've laid some clean clothes out on your bed, maybe you should start getting yourself organized for tomorrow eh Ness" She said trying to push me out of the living room.

I walked slowly up the stairs to my room in silence, oh great rub it in, I thought. I'm going back to the hell that is school. As I entered my room, Rufie came running out obviously Lydia had shut him in while she cleaned or something. I patted him on the head as he went downstairs, and then fell into my bed with a big thud. awwww that feels better I thought as I snuggled into my duvet. I laid there thinking of tomorrow and what it would bring.

I would find out only too soon.

A/N: Please let me know what you think. And I'll write more :)