A/N - I'm doing my best to check and correct 1982 as it keeps getting interest. By the way, that makes me feel all squidgy...I love these kids, too, and am so happy to hear from so many people, see the alerts and favorites. This was my first attempt at Twilight fan fiction, and I just sort of dove in when I started it with no plan. I just wanted to write again and chose the easiest place to begin. I had no idea how to use the site's publishing tools much less what the hell a Beta was! I'm not the best grammarian, and if you've read my profile you know I have comma issues. I can't go back and make this perfect right now and quite honestly, I'm not sure I want to. I think it reads like a 15 or 16 year old speaks or thinks. So I'll fix the really tragic stuff and leave it's basic shape. After all, it's fan fiction, not flipping William Faulkner. ;)

This was originally intended to be almost total internal monologue on Bella's part and be very much influenced by a much more innocent time - yes, I look back on the 80's as innocent compared to present day! - but Rosalie stood up and practically demanded that she be allowed to tell the story from her POV as well. She may be a softer, fluffier Rosalie in this story, but she's still quite the determined, brave girl...just shaped by a different set of circumstances. I'm not sure how much Bella will allow me to take from her journal and put here, but sometimes I can convince her it's helpful just for basic exposition so we can move things along.

And as I've started to read more fanfic I realize I should say...future lemons of various levels of tartness, lotsa language because of Alice and Emmett, but in Em's defense he really is trying to watch the swears like his Mamma taught him.

Reviews get to borrow one of Emmett's football jerseys, Jasper's leather jacket, or Edward's glasses. Your choice.

As always, SM owns all of the characters. I just took them to Savannah for a little vacation - it's only fair that Alice, Jasper, and Emmett get to play in the South sometimes.

Big smoochie smooches to my darlin' Viola Cornuta who can wield a THAT paddle like a longshoreman and still keep every single blond hair in place. Vi Betas like her name:a delicate flower with a hearty stem.

Bella's Journal.

September 1982

Alice Brandon is the nicest, prettiest girl at our school. She's all little and tiny and sweet to everybody and looks like one of those girls they used to paint on the side of the big planes in World War II with her short black hair and blue eyes. She is rich, too, because of her inheritance. She lives with her Aunt and Uncle and cousin, and they are rich, too, because her uncle is a doctor. I don't know if her father was a doctor or not. Probably not because he died young before Alice even knew him. I think he died in Vietnam or something, and Rosalie says her mother died when Alice was two from sadness over her father. She didn't kill herself or anything. Rosalie says she just withered away with sadness until she died. Rosalie says she wonders what it would be like to love somebody that much, that it just made you waste away without them. Then Rosie looks sad because she thinks she has made me think she should waste away a little, but I never think about that.

I don't care if Rosalie is a little chubby and wears old lady clothes that are way too big, she was the only person who noticed me when I moved here, and she makes me laugh so hard my sides hurt, and her parents always make sure they know Char - Dad's schedule so I don't have to be alone so much. Mr. Hale even comes over and gets me if Dad has to go out on a call in the middle of the night. She reads too many Harlequin Romances and doesn't make nearly the grades she could, but I love her. She's my best friend, even if she pays too much attention to what the other kids say about her and is always talking about Emmett McCarty and his friends.

Rosalie is in love with Emmett. I mean, it's pretty sad but sweet at the same time, because I don't think someone like Emmett even knows two freshmen, especially freshmen like us, even exist. Not to mention he has a girlfriend, Jessica Stanley, who is pretty and rich and a cheerleader. She isn't like Alice, though. She's pretty stuck on herself and always seems to have this sneer on her face. It looks like she has Emmett just do things like carry her book bag like she expects it. Rosie thinks Emmett deserves better. I always say "Oh, and who do you think would be better for him, Rosie?" and she gets this far away look in her big blue eyes and says "I wish..." Then she looks really sad and goes out into their garage to get us another Coke.

Alice has a boyfriend, of course, and they are really in love, like they just breathe each other in when they look at each other. His name is Jasper Hale. I think he's Rosie's 2nd cousin or something. Somehow they are related, and Rosie always sees him at holidays and family picnics and stuff like that. Plus, Mr. Hale helped Jasper fix up his car at their auto body shop. Jasper always brings Alice to all of the family get-togethers, and Rosie says her mother and aunts talk about Alice and call her damaged goods. Once Rosie asked her mom about it, and Mrs. Hale told her to mind her own business so who knows what that all means. Jasper drives this big car, I think it's called a GTO, and it's shiny and midnight blue. I love the way that color sounds - midnight blue. Jasper's car has 2 big white stripes on the hood and lots of shiny chrome. It's pretty loud, you can always tell when he and Alice get to school in the morning. I can usually hear his car pull into the student parking lot when I get off the bus.

Rosie's mom brings her to school. Rosie doesn't ride the bus anymore because of Mike Newton. Before I moved here he and Tyler Crowley started to pick on Rosie, spitting spit wads at her and pushing her down the bus steps. It started when Mike moved here in the 5th grade. They still call her Rosie the Cow and shove into her in the hall and sometimes worse. It's pretty disgusting, a boy hitting a girl like Mike does. Somehow I think Rosie feels she deserves it. Mom told me that once after Phil lost it...she deserved it. Rosie never says so, but I know she just wishes Emmett McCarty would some day notice how mean they are to her and beat the shit out of them. Emmett seems so nice, I can't really see him ever beating up two stupid freshman boys, but he is huge - like really huge since he is a football player - so I bet he could just look down at them and scare them into leaving Rosie alone. I've never talked to him, but sometimes I look up during lunch and catch him smiling at Rosie and me. Thank God she never notices, or she'd probably choke on one of those stupid carrot sticks her mother sends as Rosie's lunch.

Mike and Tyler sort pick on me, too. They call me the ugly duckling and a narc. I mean, can I help it if Charlie - Dad (one day I will get used to Dad) is a cop? One time everything - moving here, them picking on me and Rosie, feeling so awkward - just really got to me, and I was sitting at the kitchen table crying so hard I didn't notice Charlie - Dad...erg...had gotten home. He looked all kinds of uncomfortable but forced the whole story out of me. Dad told me to ignore them, and I do because they are just stupid boys, and I won't be flat chested and awkward forever. Then he messed up my hair and called me Iza-Bug and went and got a beer from the fridge and cleared his throat a lot. I missed Mom so much then, even though she is who she is. Sometimes she just knew how to make me smile, and I would be OK again.

Alice and Jasper are always with Emmett and Jessica. They are sort of the kings and queens of the school, and they are all only juniors. Even the seniors sort of seem in awe of them. It's like Alice and Jasper are the king and queen of cool, Emmett and Jessica are the king and queen of high school perfection and Alice's cousin Edward Cullen and his girlfriend Angela Weber are the king and queen of the really smart but not geeky kids. No one, not even Rosie, knows it, but I am sickeningly in love with Edward Cullen. He is like that perfect combination of gorgeous and smart, like someone you could sit and talk about a book with forever and then make out in the back of a car until the windows are covered in steam. It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't always running into him. I mean it's not like I plan it. OK, maybe a little but not most of the time. Edward is incredibly intelligent, like MENSA genius smart. He's only a junior and has finished all of the science classes you can take at this school. That's why he is Mr. Brandon's aide in my biology class.

Biology is a sophomore class, but Dad got the school to let me in to it because I was in the gifted program in Phoenix and really should be taking Chemistry this year since I took Biology last year. Mrs. Cope, the guidance counselor, called it a 'compromise' to let me into Biology. So everyday he is there in Biology. I think mostly he just reads or does his other homework, but sometimes he hands out quizzes and tests or works the film projector for Mr. Brandon. Once he was running a film strip on mitosis for Mr. Brandon, and I was sneaking glances at his face and the way it was lit like some perfect marble statue in a garden from the light off of the film projector. And he just looked over at me and smiled and pushed up his glasses on his nose. And he kept smiling, not like he was laughing at me but like he enjoyed me looking at him. Something about his smile and the way he started bouncing his foot up and down made me feel a little queasy, and I had to look away because by that point I was really blushing. I walk by him in the library all the time and try to sneak a look at what he is reading, but I never can see over his big shoulders. I even auditioned with Rosie for choir because he is the accompanist. But I didn't get in. I wasn't surprised - I can't carry a tune, but I can belt out some Janis Joplin thanks to Charlie's old record collection. Rosie can sing really well, though, and sometimes Emmett meets Edward outside of the choir room after rehearsal. So of course I meet Rosie after rehearsal, too. If Rosie knew about Edward it would be awful, because she would be even more giggly between knowing my secret and seeing Emmett at close range.

Since I moved here, sometimes I sit on the bleachers at the athletic field to do my homework or read and wait for my father to go off duty and come get me. I like to sit high up and watch the sunsets and let my face feel warm in the sun like it always did in Phoenix, even though it's humid hot here and not desert hot. Then track practice started, and I realized Edward was on the track team. He does pole vault, hurdles, and regular running. Sometimes I worry he notices me and thinks I'm like some stupid little puppy following him around, not at all like Angela Weber, who barely seems to notice him. Something about her makes me think of a dentist's office, like she must smell like antiseptic and cold metal. Edward reminds me of one of those big Irish fisherman's sweaters, and I can see him standing on a cold beach with the wind making that coppery bronze hair of his blow everywhere. I've never seen them smile at each other. Lately when I see Edward with Jasper and Emmet at lunch they are always laughing and teasing Alice. Angela and Jessica just sort of seem like they don't get their jokes. Actually Angela seems like she's above it all, and barely notices them, and Jessica usually looks really ticked off because she's not the center of attention.

So that's pretty much how things have started to go since I've been here. Sort of the same. At least I have Rosie. She begged and pleaded with me to go to the Homecoming football game tonight, but I just wasn't up for three hours of totally unobstructed Emmett viewing. Rosie's father is taking her, which is a good thing because I know for a fact Mike Newton and his friends will be there. At least she will be safe. Safe and getting to watch Emmett in a football uniform. Good for her.

I wonder what Edward is doing tonight?

Bella

May 1983

So today the juniors and seniors were picking up their pictures from the prom. Rosie and I were at our usual table in the corner of the cafeteria, and we looked up and there stands Alice.

Alice Brandon. At our table.

"Hey Rosalie," she says and smiled, like really smiled, not some fake popular girl smile.

"Hey Alice," Rosie goes all kinds of purple and sort of hunches over her lunch tray. I nudge her under the table with my foot to reassure her.

"Hey, " Alice says to me. "You're Isabella Swan, right? I saw you with Rosalie at Me-Maw Hale's birthday party, but I never got a chance to say hi. I'm Alice Brandon."

"Hey," I say, and almost choke on my milk. "Hey, Alice, nice to meet you."

"You too," she turns again to Rosie and hands her a picture. "Jas thought your mom and dad might like one of our prom pictures - y'know since your dad helped Jas restore the GTO and everything." She fishes around in the manila envelope and pulls out a stack of little wallet-sized pictures of a bunch of different people.

Poor Rosie - right on top is one of Emmett and Jessica. He looks so tall in the picture his head is scraping the top of the floral arch they are standing under and is wearing a classic black tuxedo with a green cummerbund that matches Jessica's dress. Rosie looks like she is about to giggle and cry at the same time. Alice flips the picture to the back of the pile, and there is one of Edward and Angela. I barely get a glimpse of him in his black tuxedo but see enough to notice that his cummerbund does not match Angela's yellow dress. For some reason this makes me really happy.

"Oh, OK...here we go!" Alice hands Rosie a wallet picture of her and Jasper, and Rosie and I both look at it. Alice is dressed in a beautiful light blue strapless dress with ruffles along the top and bottom in all different shades of blue and lavender in some kind of light, billowy material. She looks like a fairy princess. Jasper is wearing a tuxedo shirt, jeans, his black leather jacket and those big black leather boots he always wears. I notice Alice is wearing the same kind of boots, but they're silver.

"Wow, Alice..." Rosie says all breathy and quiet, "You look beautiful..."

She looks down, and I can see her listing her own flaws in her head immediately. Poor Rosie.

I nudge her under the table again with my foot.

Alice is looking at her closely and seems really genuinely concerned.

"Yeah," I say, hoping to get the attention off of Rosie. "Your dress is really pretty."

"Oh thank you!" Alice smiles and winks at me. "I made it myself."

"You did? Wow...how did you? I mean I wouldn't know how to even think of how to do something like that."

"Oh, I make a lot of my clothes," she laughs and waves her hand dismissively. "I want to be a fashion designer, so I'm always making things."

"That's really cool," I say, and Rosie nods along with me

"Yeah, you must be really creative. That's so great."

"You two are just the sweetest," Alice says, and I swear she means it. "So if you ever require the services of a designer, just let me know," she giggles. "Well anyway, pass that along to your parents if you don't mind, Rosalie, OK?"

"O-OK."

"See you later you two," Alice says, skipping off to their table.

I turn my head to watch her go and catch Edward's head turning back to Emmett and Jasper. I could swear he was watching us.

"Rose...you OK?"

"Oh sure." She looks up and puts on a brave smile, picks up her tray and starts off to turn it in. Then, like it is happening in slow motion, I see Mike and Tyler notice her and start snickering.

Oh no...I don't think I can get there in time. Mike shoots out his foot, and Rosie goes flying forward. She lands really hard on her knees and elbows, and I'm sure her uneaten lunch has splattered all over her. I race over to her and see not only is wearing her lunch, her nose is bleeding. Mike and Tyler and their friends are dying laughing

"You clumsy fat cow," Mike laughs, puts his foot on her butt and shoves Rosie back down into her her tray.

"Fat ass," Tyler adds, sneering.

I can feel seven and a half months of pure fury at them boil over. Poor sweet Rosie's pretty soft face is smeared with blood and Salisbury steak. "You...you...asshole!" I scream. Suddenly I feel like I am not alone.

"What's going on here?" says a deep voice behind me. I look up and see Jasper Hale glaring over my shoulder at Mike and Tyler. Alice is right behind him, looking like she could vault over Jasper's shoulder and rip out Mike's throat.

"Nothin', man. Just a little accident," Mike says defiantly.

Alice is kneeling by Rosie and cooing sweetly and dabbing at her face with a pile of napkins.

My jaw is clenched, and my fists ball up...I can feel myself shaking. Then a big warm hand is on my shoulder, and Jasper steps around me and grabs Mike by the collar.

"Let me tell you somethin', you little shit. If I ever...ever...see you bother her again or hear of you bothering her again I will personally wipe the floor with your ass. Got it?"

"Man, I'm not bothering that clumsy fat ass...she tripped over her own big feet," Mike says, his voice squeaking a little and foolishly looking Jasper in the eyes like he can challenge him. Tyler is standing now, too...as are his friends. But just as soon as they stand up their eyes widen, and they sit down.

"What's the problem here, Jas?"

Oh my God...Emmett McCarty is standing beside Jasper, arms folded across his huge chest with his jaw clenched.

I quickly kneel beside Alice and Rosie, who has started crying and is covered in blood and snot and Salisbury steak.

"Alice, please, help me get her out of here...don't let him see her like this," I whisper.

We get Rosie to her feet, and there stands Edward Cullen, looking really concerned. I bend down to start cleaning up the mess of Rosie's lunch tray, and he catches my wrist in his beautiful long fingers. I notice they're like artist's hands, soft and warm. I gulp in spite of myself.

"Go on and take care of her...I'll get this," he says quietly.

I hear Jasper saying something about about Mike wishing he had never been born if he didn't apologize to Rosie and leave her alone.

Alice is walking Rosie to the girls' room and still cooing to her like a little hurt animal. I follow them, but before the cafeteria door swings shut I see Emmett put his hand on the table Mike and Tyler are sitting at and lean down menacingly. Jasper still has Mike by the collar, and Mike has started to flail his arms a little.

Alice leads us to the girl's room and is growling about 'those idiot motherfuckers'. She is so little and cute, it kind of reminds me of an angry teacup poodle but seriously, I think that Alice Brandon could make someone like Mike Newton feel pretty scared if she got pissed off enough. She is dabbing at Rosie's bloody nose with a real lace edged handkerchief.

"Isabella, honey, run and get her books and things," Alice says.

I run back to the cafeteria for our stuff and see Mr. Porter is talking to Mike and Tyler, with Jasper and Emmett looking on. And Mrs. Cope is heading my way with her lips pursed. I duck behind my hair and try to dodge out of the cafeteria without her seeing me. Ever since the whole 'compromise' thing between Dad and her, she seems to keep her eye on me, just waiting for me to mess up somehow. It's like I messed up the natural order of the universe according to Evelyn Cope, and she is going to do everything she can to prove I'm nothing special.

Yeah, get in line, Evelyn.

Luckily I get to the bathroom before she can teeter in on her teal high heels. Alice has gotten Rosie mostly cleaned up and has her giggling by saying Mike probably has a little dick or something.

"Um...Mrs. Cope is on her way," I say and take up position beside Rosie.

"Oh shit," Alice rolls her eyes. "Hasn't she got anything better to do..."

The door swings open, and Mrs. Cope, and the smell of her Giorgio Designer Impostor perfume fills the bathroom. In the fluorescent light of the bathroom her hair looks this weird purple color, even though it's supposed to be red. She looks like she is mad at Rosie or something.

"Well, girls, care to tell me about this scene you caused in the lunch room?"

"They didn't cause a scene. Some rude boy tripped Rosalie, and she's been injured," Alice says, crossing her arms and stepping towards Mrs. Cope. "Apparently he and his little friend have been bullying Rosalie all year long, and she's been too scared to say anything else about it again after the guidance counseling office told her to just ignore it."

If Mrs. Cope purses her lips any tighter her head is going to get sucked in her nostrils.

"And you, Isabella Swan, how are you involved? Surely someone from a Gifted and Talented program at another school wouldn't be involved in any trouble." She says 'Gifted and Talented' like someone has tried to convince her space aliens really exist.

"Rosie's my best friend, Mrs. Cope. I'm just trying to help her," I mutter from behind Alice.

"Mrs. Cope," Alice says sweetly as she takes her teal polyester clad arm and turns her towards the door. "Rosalie has been assaulted and injured. My boyfriend, Jasper Hale, is her cousin and has already gone to call Rosalie's father. We will be taking Rosalie home for the rest of the day."

Mrs. Cope's pinched up mouth opens and closes like a dying goldfish's. "Well...that's fine, I suppose. But you run on to class, Isabella Swan. You can't afford to miss even one day of your advanced classes."

I have a 99 average in Biology and did the same coursework last year in Phoenix. I got an A in it there, too.

"Yes, ma'am," I say. I grab Rosie's hand and give it a squeeze. "I'll call you when I get home," I whisper and give her a little hug.

When I get to Biology, Mike and Tyler's seats are empty.

And Edward Cullen is walking towards me.

As I'm sitting down, my foot catches on the stool at my lab table, and I sort of fall onto my seat. Real graceful.

"Um, hello," he says. Behind his glasses his eyes are the color of moss, and he's close enough I can tell the irises are rimmed in this dark honey color. I clutch at the corner of the table and try to smile sweetly like Mrs. Hale always tells Rosie and me to do when a boy talks to us, because nice boys don't like moody, shy girls.

Like she is the font of teenage wisdom.

My cheeks feel like they are bursting into flames.

I probably look like I am about to have some kind of a seizure.

"Uh...hi"

"How is your friend?" I can feel myself begin to slide down the slippery satin ribbon of his voice.

"Oh." I blink and try to sound...how does Mrs. Hale say it...'perky'. "Oh, she's fine. Alice and Jasper took her home." I even add a little laugh.

"I think Jas and Em scared the shit out of those guys, so they most likely will leave her alone in the future. I hope she's OK."

"OK." I can smell him now. He smells like something you put in pumpkin pie and burning leaves and an antique leather chair. I can't resist the temptation to inhale a little.

"Right." His eyebrows furrow over the dark frames of his glasses, and he turns to go.

"Oh! Um...thanks for your help. You know - with the tray."

"Not a problem," he says and turns to go talk to Mr. Banner.

I bet Edward Cullen now thinks I'm as intelligent as something you find growing in a petri dish.