ESCAPE FROM BABYLON | R. HALE

PROLOGUE

Being normal was never something Bella was good at. She slouched when she walked, she didn't care too much about her appearance, her friend group was freakishly small, and she could fall right asleep after chugging a coffee. It was her secret talent!

But then again, several people slouch their shoulders when they walk, there are plenty of people that don't care about their appearance, and there are an abundance of people that choose to keep their friend group small. There's not much to say much about the coffee thing, though. That definitely isn't normal.

When Bella stood next to her slightly younger sister, however, she was the most normal, plain person on the face on the Earth. Whatever Bella did to make herself not normal, Jennifer was doing it ten fold.

People had a hard time believing the fact that Jennifer and Bella were related. Distant cousins, maybe. But sisters? Sometimes the girls thought there could be no possible way that there was any relation. But their parents always reassured them! They were one-hundred percent sisters.

Jennifer always favored her father, while Bella always favored her mother. Right down the the mannerisms, too! The second Jennifer opened her mouth, people knew she was Charlie Swan's daughter. Mildly inappropriate jokes, sarcasm by the boat load, and the damn eye rolling. That one even got on Charlie's nerve from time to time. But Jennifer always hit him with the, "why are you yelling at me for literally acting like you?" Which always resulted in Charlie rolling his own eyes.

To some people, being so close with your father may seem weird. But to Jennifer, Charlie Swan is her best friend. Watching football on the flatscreen, going fishing, going on rides in the police cruiser, eating out at the diner; the list could go on!

She talked to him about everything, from things that happened with Renée or Bella to the new gossip that she heard at school. The pair was genuinely impossible to separate. Wherever one was, the other wasn't too far behind.

But everything changed when Renée demanded the girls move in with her, all the way in Arizona. Bella was easy to convince, but Jennifer did not go down without a fight. She didn't want to move, to leave her life behind here, leave all five of her friends, leave her father. Her life was here, not in Arizona.

She had begged her mother to let her stay in Forks, but Renée had made up her mind. Jennifer and Bella would move in with her and her new husband, that neither of the girls had even met. And frankly, Jennifer didn't care about meeting him.

She had went to Charlie, asking if there was legally anything they could do so she could stay here with him. But since Jennifer was a minor, she had to go live with her mother, granted that she was the one who actually had legal custody of her, even if she did live with Charlie.

She reluctantly packed her things, she reluctantly got onto the plane, and she reluctantly got off the plane.

It was a rough change at first, living with one parent almost your entire life, only to be forced to live with the other. It was borderline torture, especially to be placed with a parent who clearly had a favorite child.

It was no surprise that Renée went straight to Bella when the pair got off the plane. It took a whole two minutes of crying and hugging before Renée even noticed Jennifer standing there. Maybe if she got a plane back to Forks, she wouldn't notice.

"Glad you're home, Jen," her mother said, patting her shoulder. There was no warm welcome hug like Bella had gotten. Just awkward shoulder patting.