Disclaimer: I don't own either Supernatural or Twilight, but if I did….wow, the shit I would get up to.

AN (please read, it's actually important): Now, no doubt some people are not going to like this. If you ship Bella/Edward, you will not like this. If you want Adam Milligan dead, you will not like this. If you think Twilight was a masterpiece of literary fiction, you should just hit that back button RIGHT NOW, because you will not like this.

HOWEVER, if you thought Bella and Edward's relationship was seriously unbalanced and Bella needed to grow a pair and Edward needed to get down of his dramatically high horse, you are gonna love this. If you thought Adam Milligan was a seriously underutilized character, you are in the right place. If you read Twilight, got to the end of and went, 'I'm sorry WHAT?' you are probably gagging for this.

Now, just so we're clear – this is AU. It's AU for most of season 4 of Supernatural and pretty much all of the Twilight Saga. It's AU in other ways, in that my original conception of the story went along the lines of – well, what if Bella had a personality, and a spine, and a functioning sense of self-preservation? Then things got a little more interesting when I asked, what if she had better friends, or just one even?

So then I crossed it over with one of my favourite series and now this AU hinges on a very particular event taking place, which changes everything…

Chapter One – New Kid on the Block

An old Ford Falcon circa 1972 passed the 'Welcome to Forks' sign, followed closely by a movers van, and from the front passenger seat Adam Milligan watched it pass his window with laconic eyes.

Fleetwood Mac was playing on the radio of his mom's car and Kate was humming along with Stevie Nicks while she crooned thunder only happens when it's rainin' to an unseen audience.

"How far to the house?"

"Not long now, honey," Kate said, offering him a smile. "I've got a good feeling about this place, you know."

Adam smiled back, and silently hoped she was right.

Overhead, the clouds finally broke open and rain reached down from the molten steel sky.

Two weeks later, Bella Swan watched that same sign go past with a faint sense of dread.

As they passed a house two blocks from Charlie's place, a faint tingle went up her spine, and she frowned, looking back over her shoulder at it. It had a bright blue door, a wind chime on the porch and there was a boy her age, or maybe a bit older, wheeling his bike up the driveway.

Unnoticed, small points of light gathered under the skin of her fingertips…

Her first full day in Forks was wet, just like yesterday, last night, and all the weather that would undoubtedly follow. It was depressing, but in all honesty…she'd chosen this. There was no point sulking when she was the one who'd put herself on a plane.

Charlie had left before her, putting his breakfast dishes in the sink just as she'd come downstairs. There had been some awkward hopping around in his – their – their tiny kitchen while Bella made herself toast (too cold for cereal) and Charlie tried to say casual but affectionate goodbyes while simultaneously not being late for work.

Bella had solved the problem by kissing his cheek, telling him to stay safe and then shoving him out the front door.

In the brief moment of quiet, she'd had her toast, thought longingly about a latte and settled for tea because Charlie only had instant. And…and wondered how her mother was doing.

God, she hoped Phil was up to the task of looking after Renée. He seemed capable…

Enough moping, she thought, savagely biting into the last of her toast and heading for the door. Remember how no one likes a martyr?

The truck roared to life around her but the radio worked, thank god, and she was able to find an independent station that aired from a few towns over and played foreign indie rock. She caught the band name but not the song, Gasoline Cowboy playing…something. It was good – not her usual fare, but sweet, and heartfelt. It made her think of California, actually, sunshine on a beach, warmth and open skies and family…

She came around the corner, still drifting pleasantly on the chorus when something shot up her spine, like blood flowing back to a pinched limb – pins and needles time a thousand – and like a premonition, there was the place with the blue door.

The wind chime was swinging wildly, its jangling barley audible over the persistent rain and the roar of Bella's truck. The boy wasn't out front at the moment (and who would be in this weather) but his bike was there, tucked up out of the rain on the front porch.

She bit her lip and rubbed her tingling fingertips on the old leather of the steering wheel. Weird.

Things proceeded rather mundanely from there on; she was ahead in classes, so she was free to take scant notes and spend the rest of the time surreptitiously writing letters to the few friends she'd left behind in Phoenix. She'd email them when she got home.

Dear Holly,

I think you'd kind of hate it here – its wet all the time – but there are so many trees I bet your Eco Warrior Soul would be just wallowing in all the green. I'm ahead in classes (I've read everything in this English Class fifty thousand times already – I wish they'd just let me do To Kill A Mocking Bird! Something after the turn of the century!), so I'm writing to you and trying not to laugh because I'm picturing the faces you'll make when you read this.

How're Toby and Dill? I miss you all already and it's only my first day. Living with Charlie is kind of weird. Kind of awkward. All my class pictures are on the mantelpiece at the house (which is potentially embarrassing) and he's still got his and Mom's wedding picture up there. I don't think he's over her, and it would be awkward too if it didn't make me so sad. He can look after himself well enough in all the ways Mom can't, but I get the feeling I'm going to be looking after him in other ways that Mom never had a problem with.

But promise you'll reach through the internet and slap me if I start trying to set him up with someone. I refuse to turn into a teen yenta for my father.

Loads of love,
Bella

Things really kicked off around lunchtime, however. Before she'd even sat down, a line of sensation blasted up her spine and raised all the fine hair along her scalp.

Bella blinked in surprise and had to steady herself on a chair.

Jessica – tiny, bubbly, happy to fill in the conversational gaps Bella found herself leaving – put a hand on her arm, looking worried.

"You okay?"

"Uh, yeah, just…head-rush."

"Okay, come sit down then. Everyone's over here."

She led Bella to a table in the middle of the cafeteria and began introducing people. Bella tried to keep up, but she'd never been what you'd call fantastic with names.

One however, seemed to stand out.

"…and this is Adam, he's new too."

The boy sitting across from her looked up, eyebrows raised, expression curious. He met her gaze and smiled, lop-sided and rueful. He was cute, all sandy hair that seemed to stand up of it own volition and blue eyes that in this light tended towards teal. Unlike the rest of the table's occupants, he offered her a hand to shake.

"Adam Milligan, lately of Windom, Minnesota."

She smiled back. "Bella Swan. Phoenix, Arizona."

Then their palms touched and –

Sparks blind her.

Torrents of them fill her.

They line her veins, flash through her heart.

She feels them flashing upon the backs of her eyes.

They burn like captive sunlight under her skin.

She meets his eyes, and for a moment she can see them in him too…

Both of them yelped and pulled their hands back, startled by the buzz of energy that raced across their skin and up their nerve endings.

"What the hell what that!" Adam was laughing, shaking his hand out.

"Static shock," Bella said, making a face and rubbing her palm.

"Hell of a first impression." He's smile crinkled the corners of his eyes and she found herself laughing, ignoring the vision that still blazed just below the surface of her mind.

"I'll say…"

There was a crash of plastic from the back of the caf; a girl on the way to the trash had dropped her tray and was standing stock still, as though rooted to the to the linoleum.

She was tiny, built like a dancer with the palest skin Bella had ever seen, and dark hair in a pixie cut. And beautiful. Achingly beautiful, like some kind of life-sized china doll.

Right now she looked like an alarmed china doll – her dark eyes were wide, the whites showing almost all the way round and her cupid's bow mouth slack with surprise.

Half the caf was staring at her in outright shock.

One boy at table in one of the back corners, about ten feet from her, was getting to his feet and walking towards her, his face etched with concern. He was beautiful too, and pale, and unnervingly graceful.

When he reached the girl he put an arm around her slight shoulders, bending his head so that his blonde curls fell over his eyes and murmured to her, too low to hear.

She seemed to come back to herself, darting a glance at him and then at the others at their table – a blonde girl who looked like she should have been on a runway in Milan or Paris, a dark-haired boy who was built like tank and handsome the same way large predators are, and another boy with ruffled brassy hair and a furtive expression on his (inevitably) glorious face.

All of them white as sheets, devastatingly attractive, and causing the hackles on Bella's neck to rise in a line of angry, prickling heat.

"Who're they?" Bella said, keeping her voice low and watching as the blonde boy escorted his small companion from the room.

"Rosalie Hale, Edward and Emmett Cullen," Adam murmured, and Bella noted he kept a wary eye on them as well. "Alice Cullen is the girl who just left. The guy with her is Jasper Hale, Rosalie's twin."

"They're foster kids," Jessica put in, getting her voice back. "Dr. Cullen and his wife took them in when they were little." She wrinkled her nose. "Jasper's dating Alice and Rosalie's with Emmett."

"The big guy," another girl – Angela? – put in when she saw Bella's questioning look. "Edward's the one with the dark blonde hair."

A voice at the back of her head that sounded suspiciously like Holly piped up, Oooh scandal! Bella bit her lip to keep from grinning.

"And he's dating…?"

"He doesn't date," Jessica put in quickly. "Apparently no one here is up to scratch."

"Oh, really," Bella said faintly, and had to bit her lip again when she caught Adam's knowing smirk.

"No one," Adam confirmed, cutting a quick look at Jessica, who was loftily inspecting her nails.

"His loss," Bella said, and gave Jessica a companionable shoulder bump. She knew she'd made a friend for life with the other girl beamed back at her.

Adam smiled and rolled his eyes at her behind Jess's back, and yes, okay, she probably wasn't an ideal friend, but a few small town friends was better than being a small town loner.

Biology was a disaster.

Well, okay, as a science it was doing alright, but as Bella's second to last class of the day it was about as fun as being a vegan trapped in a meat-packing plant.

Seriously, she did not smell bad. What was this douchebag's problem?

The douchebag in question was Edward Cullen, who was currently leaning away from her like she was single-handedly threatened an onset of the Bubonic Plague just by breathing.

Class hadn't even started yet and she was going to be stuck next to him for the next hour!

It was time to write a very angry letter to Holly, who would commiserate entirely and threaten the more sensitive areas of Edward's anatomy. Just the thought of Holly's sympathetic rage had her roughly unpacking her books and actually sending a haughty glare at Edward's profile, although he was so busy being aloof and offended that he probably didn't catch it.

"Hey, Edward."

Edward's eyes narrowed to coal black slits and he turned to look at Adam who was at the table behind them with Angela.

"What?" Edward said, voice painfully level, like he was fighting to keep from tearing Adam into little pieces.

"I promised Bella I'd sit with her, in case she needed any help for this class."

"And?"

"We should swap seats. I'll explain to Mr Banner if he asks," Adam added quickly.

Edward's eyes narrowed further, and Bella held her breath, but then he abruptly packed up his books and darted around the table to Adam's seat and waited with noticeable impatience while the other boy picked up his books.

Adam offered her a smile as he took the seat next to her and shuffled over close enough so that they could be perceived to be sharing notes.

"So, how 'bout that cellular anatomy?"

"I hear it's all the rage," Bella said, writing thank you! on the corner of her notepad.

Adam nodded. "You could be onto something there," and wrote in the margin of his, you're welcome :)

"What is his problem?" Adam muttered as he walked Bella to PE.

Bella looked supremely irritated.

"I have no idea." She scowled. "He was acting like I was diseased."

"Ignore it," he told her, and put a hand on her shoulder. "He's weird, the whole lot of them are."

She cast him a doubtful look.

"I'm serious. Did you notice at lunch? All of them had full trays in front of them and never ate a thing."

"That happens all the time?"

"Every single day since I've been here. Everyone else just ignores it, but…"

"Weird," Bella murmured, looking thoughtful.

"Yeah."

They walked together in silence for a little while. Both lost in their thoughts.

"Hey, Adam," Bella said, just as she was about to head into the girls' change rooms.

"Yeah?"

She was frowning, face pinched and apprehensive. "When you notice them…do your hackles go up? I mean, do you get this feeling on the back of your neck, kind of burning –"

"Every damn time."

They stared at each other for fraught moment.

"Weird," Bella said, very, very softly.

"Understatement," Adam said back.

Edward Cullen was in the front office.

Oh, brilliant.

Bella closed her eyes briefly and went to sit down in one of the chairs two plastic in the reception area. She pulled her battered copy of Nicholas Williamson's The Wind Singer out of her backpack and settled in; Edward was arguing with the woman at reception at looked quite determined to have his way.

When she happened to catch 'biology' and 'switch' her ears perked up without her meaning them to and she half-listened to the hissed conversation; Edward was trying to switch his Biology II class with another time.

What he serious? She didn't smell bad! ASSHOLE!

His back had stiffened when she'd walked in, but he'd refused to look at her. He sure as hell looked when she smacked the book shut. He glared at her, eyes black as sin and scorchingly angry.

Bella thought firmly of Holly, picturing the smaller girl flying in his face and threatening to scratch his eyes out, and then with deliberate nonchalance, crossed her legs, folded her arms and gave him a single raised eyebrow that perfectly conveyed the sentiment, 'And what?'

Edward Cullen's mouth set in a fine white line.

"Never mind," he muttered and blew out of the office like a bat out of hell.

Bella rolled her eyes, handed over her slip to the flustered receptionist and headed for the student car park.

Seriously, the guy was good looking and all, but that was no excuse for behaving like some kind of spoiled prince.

"Bella!" Charlie was calling up the stairs.

Bella tore herself away from Holly and Dill's latest attempts to teach Toby how to fetch their dad a beer from the fridge and called back, "Yeah?"

"Can you come down here for a sec?"

"What's up?" she asked when she was half-way down the stairs.

"Uh. C'mere. Into the living room." Charlie scrubbed at the back of his head, looking pleased but nervous. "Gotcha something."

Bella made a face at him as she followed him into the living room.

"Dad. You already got me a car you didn't have to get me – OH MY GOD!"

Books.

There were books everywhere.

Well, okay, not everywhere, but there were at least three boxes of them – overflowing boxes of them. And they were old too, some of them were bound in actual leather with faded gold and silver embossed titles.

When she could move again, Bella stumbled over to them and carefully picked up an ancient copy of The Hounds of Baskerville bound in green leather. She flipped through it and then nearly flipped out when she saw the old woodcut pictures scattered throughout the narrative.

"So," Charlie said, "you like 'em?"

"Dad. They're amazing!" She grinned at him, elated, and he smiled back. "Where did you get them?"

"Out of storage," he said, sitting on the couch and watching her gently dig through them with a look of evident pleasure. "They used to be your grandma's, but I'm not a great reader, so Lionel Mackey over at the Forks Library's been keeping 'em stored properly for me."

"This is so great," Bella enthused. "Oh my god, all my favourites are here… These are all Gran's books? She read all of these?"

"Yeah…this one, this one here?" Charlie held up a copy of Swiss Family Robinson. "My mom read this one to me before bed when I was eight. And this one," The Hobbit, "when I was ten."

Bella watched him fondly rubbing a thumb over the book's pebbled red cover, his eyes far away and his smile warm.

"Dad," she said smiling and putting every ounce of affection into it, "thank you. This is probably the nicest thing I've ever gotten, really."

Charlie smiled back, then leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

"You are so welcome, Bells. I'm glad you like them. You're so like your Gran, y'know, so…it just makes sense you having these."

Bella settled cross-legged next to the coffee table, leaning against the couch. "What was she like?"

"About at tall as you, and I remember having the same hair as you, when I was a kid. Different eyes though; I've got my dad's eyes, and you've got mine. Your Gran had green eyes, real bright green. They used to light up when she was happy, or when she was spitting mad…"

It was probably the longest talk she and Charlie had ever had, and they only stopped because Renée rang, demanding to know why Bella hadn't answered her emails.

AN: So, according to the Twilight wiki Bella is a child of '87. In this fic, she's a child of '90, like Adam. Just FYI. Also, just posting this to see who's interested – I'm amidships with assignments right now, so chapter two might be a while :(