A Fresh Start...Complete

A Fresh Start is complete on all platforms...

A Fresh Start on FicPad

A Fresh Start on TWCS

A Fresh Start on AO3

A Fresh Start on FFn

Bella is a recent divorcee, reeling from the abrupt ending of her marriage. In walks a certain green-eyed stranger. Can he convince her trust and love again? Or will she just ignore his advances? ExB, AU, AH

Chapter One: The End

"Hey Bella," my co-worker Angela said to me. She was the art teacher at the middle school that I worked at, Cherry Blossom Middle School. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good, Angela," I smile. I look at my computer, bored at my lame job. The grades for my students' latest English tests werehorrendous. I can only re-teach a concept so many times. "How about you? How are things with Ben?"

"Oh my gosh, Bells," she gushed. "He proposed. Look at the ring he got me." She waved her hand in my face and I was shocked at her newest bling. It was gorgeous: a large round cut diamond in a Tiffany style setting. Very classic, just like Angela.

"It's beautiful, Angela. He did good," I enthused. "Really good. So, how did he do it?"

"He took me out to dinner, renting out the entire restaurant. The wait staff and kitchen made all of my favorite meals and in the final course, he had the ring presented to me," she breathed. "It was perfect. Just like Ben."

I plastered on a fake smile, happy for my young friend. Hearing about her romantic proposal made me sad. It had been a long time since my husband of five years, Mike, did anything romantic for me. I was so spaced out that I didn't realize that Angela was asking me a question. "Excuse me, what?"

"Are you okay, Bella?" Angela asked as she adjusted her colorful skirt. "You seem a bit off."

"I'm fine," I replied automatically. "I'm really happy for you."

"Thanks," she said with a smile. "Are you ready for parent-teacher conferences?"

"Ugh, no. I have to meet with my team after school today to finalize some things. Then, drama club fun. Thank goodness my assistant director can start the rehearsal," I sighed. "Before I forget, can you help with the sets and costumes?"

"Hell yeah," Angela said, bouncing on her toes. "I was involved in the theater program at school and I loved it. What are you doing?"

"Once on this Island, Jr." I replied. "It's really cute. Can have some awesome sets."

"Can I get a script?" she asked.

"Sure. I'll make a copy for you and stick it in your mailbox," I said.

"Thanks, Bells," she said, her brown eyes dancing. "See you later."

"Bye," I said, turning back to my computer. I needed to input these tests into the computer so they could be sent to the parent web module; the online gradebook used my school district. We were told that we needed to keep it up to date as we didn't send home paper report cards anymore. I finally finished my grading and walked down to my teammate's classroom. I was on one of the eighth grade teams. I taught accelerated language arts. I loved my students, when they applied themselves and my team was awesome. The othermembers included Jessica Stanley who taught the regular language arts students; Tyler Crowley who taught math; and Emmett McCarty who taught science and social studies. Out of all of my teammates, Emmett and I were the closest. He was like my dorky older brother even though I was older than him by a few years.

I was 32 and had been teaching in the same district since I got out of school. I got married when I was 26 to my husband, Mike Newton.He was a manager for a large insurance corporation. We were happy for the first years of our marriage. He doted on me when it was convenient for him. He assisted me when I had several ankle surgeries. I'm a habitual klutz and I've had more sprained ankles than I care to admit. He was a good man, but very cold at times. This cold demeanor wasn't there at the beginning of our relationship, but it has since transformed in the past few years.

I really noticed it at the end of the school year last year. My position had been drastically changed. I had been teaching a combination of regular language arts and accelerated language arts in another building, Chapel Middle School. My principal, who for some strangereason, didn't like me, he arbitrarily moved me to Cherry Blossom where I was going to be teaching all of the accelerated language arts classes, tripling my workload. I was so frustrated with the whole situation and I vented to my husband. He didn't take the side of myprincipal, but he didn't support me either. Thankfully I had some connections at Cherry Blossom. I was already the drama director for them and I knew most of the kids and some of the staff. It still pissed me off that it happened, but at least I'm employed.