zChapter 1
Full Summary: Bella is a down-to-earth Victoria Secret model with a dark, morbid, past. Edward is America's heartthrob, without a care in the world. When their paths cross at a party, Edward saves Bella from humiliation. Bella never expected to see Edward again. Well isn't she surprised when they get cast for the same movie, The Hunger Games.
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or the Hunger Games.
"Did we lose him?" I asked, leaning into my assistant's, Ella, ear. She turned her head around to look behind us.
"Yeah I think so." I sighed in relief. We had just seen my ex-boyfriend. We were not on best terms and the last thing I wanted to do was strike up a conversion. Not only would it hurt me, but it would also be terribly awkward. A drop of rain splattered on my cheek and traveled down my face. I lifted my head to the sky and saw angry gray clouds covering New York's sky. After another few drops fell the ground, I lifted my umbrella and linked arms with Ella so we would be shielded from the storm.
"So how's your brother?" I asked over the rain. Ella sighed and tugged on her blonde bangs, something she only did when she was distressed.
"Being an idiot like always. I told you about his girlfriend, right?" she asked. I shook my head, not recalling that he even had a girlfriend. "Oh, well he's been going out with this girl for a few weeks. I don't really like her; she's always giving me dirty looks for some reason. But I guess I'm going to have to get used to it because he got her pregnant!" she exclaimed. I stopped dead in my tracks, causing Ella to stumble back.
"You're kidding." I asked, astonished. Her brother was in medical school but has been getting into trouble lately. Since I was very familiar with troubled siblings, Ella confined in me when it came to him.
"Oh, I wish! Our parent's are going to freak out! He has lost his job, is almost failing out of school, and is supposed to support a baby now! Our parent's are well-to-do, but my god, he needs to support himself and stop leaning on them. Especially now that he's going to have a baby!"
"Well at least you're going to be an aunt." I offered feebly. Ella rolled her eyes.
"Yeah I guess." We walked around a corner and came up to a little boutique.
"Is this it?" I asked Ella. She pulled out the black berry from her pocket and glanced at the screen and back to the store.
"Yep, this is it." I pushed open the door held it open for Ella. When she was safely inside and out of the rain, I let the door close behind me. We pulled off our light coats and hung them on the coat rack. After shaking as much water as I could off the umbrella, I propped it against the wall so I wouldn't have to worry about carrying it around. I turned around and looked over the store. All the walls were pink with black stripes on one wall and black polka dots on another. There were racks filled with jeans, shirts, cocktail dresses, long elegant dresses, and, my personal favorite, shoes. I flitted over to the rack with the elegant dresses and ran my hand along the smooth silk.
"Hello Miss. You must be Bella." I turned away from the racks to see a woman with red curly hair clipped behind her head walking toward me.
"That's me." I said smiling, reaching my hand out for her to shake. She eagerly took it with a smile appearing on her face. "And this is my assistant, Ella." I introduced. Ella came over from the rack of jeans she was looking at to shake the woman's hand. The lady didn't seem as excited to see Ella. I distasted people that judged people on rank. Just because Ella wasn't a model, didn't mean she deserved to be treated any less then I was.
"Hello ladies, I'm Ann." She told us. "Sylvia told me you were coming in to get your outfit fitted for tomorrow morning." I nodded. "Let me just go and get it." She disappeared into the back room. Tomorrow morning all the Victoria Secret models were going to be on Good Morning America and we are supposed to get outfits fitted for it. Usually when all of us get together we wear relatively the same thing. Meaning someone else picks out the outfit and then pokes us with needles to make it tighter.
"Ella," I turned around to look at her, "go pick out some things you like." I told her. She looked at me like I was crazy.
"This stuff is crazy expensive Bella. There's no way I can afford it."
"My treat." I said smiling.
"No way Bella. You're not spending that much money on me."
"Don't worry about it. You need a fabulous dress for Leo's party tomorrow anyway." Ella froze and stared at me with wide eyes.
"I-I wasn't invited to his party though."
"You can come as my guest." I said shrugging. Ella opened her mouth to say something but I put my hand up to stop her. "You're going and I'm buying you a dress, so start looking." Before she could protest, Ann came out of the back room and walked over to me with a pile of clothes in her arms.
"This is what Sylvia approved of. You're all wearing these jackets," she said holding up a gold, leather jacket with pink stitching on the back reading 'VIP Angel', "but other than that, you have a lot of choices." I looked down at the pile and saw a clump of white shirts and denim jeans.
If a lot of choices meant different styles white shirts.
After I picked out the style of shirt, jeans, and gold boots, Ella and I were back outside on the rainy New York street. Ella ended up getting a short black dress that looked absolutely stunning on her. She even let me convince her to get new black heels. When we reached my apartment lobby, Ella gave me a kiss on the cheek and said goodbye. Not before reminding me of the meeting I had at four in the morning tomorrow with Sylvia and the rest of the Angels. I groaned at the thought of waking up at three. I don't understand why we had to have it right before we left for the interview! Couldn't we just have a meeting tonight instead?
I walked up to the front desk and leaned down so my chin was resting on the counter.
"Hey Mrs. Susan." I greeted the woman who worked the front desk during the day. She turned around from where she was filling out paper work and looked over at me.
"Afternoon Miss Bella." She greeted me in her accent. Her mouth broke out into a smile to deepen the wrinkles around her face. Mrs. Susan was in her sixties and was one of the sweetest people to ever walk the planet. "I have mail right here." She reached below the desk and handed me my mail.
"Thank you so much." I gave her a small smile walked away from the desk.
"My pleasure Miss Bella."
"Bella!" A girly voice called. I looked around to find the source of the voice and was taken aback when I felt someone jump on my back. Small hands covered my eyes followed by a giggle.
"Guess who!" The girl squealed. By this time I knew exactly who it was.
"I'm going to have to say it's Claire." The little girl jumped off my back and came around in front of me. Claire was six years old. She had dark skin with dark brown eyes, just like her father, Quil. She wrapped her arms around my legs and smiled up at me.
"I love you Bella!"
"I love you too." I giggled, smoothing out her hair. "Now where's your daddy?" I asked concerned.
"Upstairs, I came down here to get a coke from the machine." She held up the ice cold coco cola for proof.
"Does your dad know you're here?" I asked, raising my eyebrows in a 'don't you lie to me' kind of way. I've known Claire since she was three years old, long enough to know she likes to sneak away without telling anyone. She dropped her head to hide the blush that was rising on her cheeks. I knew what that blush meant, she didn't. "Come on Claire," I grabbed her hand that wasn't holding the coke and brought her to the elevator, "let's bring you back home. We don't want anyone taking your cute little self." She giggled at the compliment just as the elevator doors opened.
"Can I push the button?" Claire thrilled.
"Of course." She pressed her floor number, eight, and ran to the opposite side of the glass elevator so she could see out to New York City. "That's my favorite building." She said matter-of-factly, pointing to the Empire State Building, which shot up into the clouds.
"Mine too." I agreed. The elevator doors slid open to reveal a hallway with a very worried looking Quil.
"Claire! There you are." He blew out a sigh of relief and grabbed her into a hug. "You need to stop scaring my like that Claire!" He looked up at me.
"Thanks Bella. Where was she?"
"She was in the lobby getting a soda." I nodded over to the coke in her hand. He rolled his eyes.
"See you later." I wiggled my fingers goodbye before the elevator doors shut. Reaching into my Hermes, I got out my keys and put the correct one into the key hole that said P. When the elevator got to the twentieth floor, the doors opened up and I was able to take out my key. I walked into my den and discarded my coat, heels, and purse on the hardwood floor. On my way to my bedroom, I got an apple from the fridge and took a big bite of it. I moaned from how good it was and walked the rest of the way to my room. Jumping onto my bed, I let myself sink into the comfort and relax my muscles.
I finished my apple and walked into the bathroom. Looking around. The only way I could describe my bathroom is huge. There is a walk in shower with about twenty shower heads, a tub the size of a swimming pool, two sinks set atop white marble to match the marble on the floor, and finally, my closet. My closet is bigger than the boutique we went to today and filled with this season's top designer clothes, all fitted for my body exactly.
I walked into the shower and turned the water on one of the heads, then hastily ran out of it so I could let it warm up and not get soaked in the process. I stripped out of the jeans and t-shirt I was wearing, leaving me in just my bra and panties. I looked up at my reflection in the mirror and stood straight up. Before I knew it, my mind wandered to the memory of how I became a model.
Flashback
Alice, my best friend, was dragging me to work with her during fashion week two years ago. She was just starting her career as a make-up artist/fashion designer and had been begging me to come watch her for weeks. Today, she was putting on the faces o f Victoria Secret models. Two years ago, when I was fifteen, this sort of thing would have been right up my alley. At that time I loved dressing up, doing make up, being girly. But things changed when he came into our lives. Everything did. Now, my wardrobe consisted of gray t-shirts, black hoodies, and black skinny jeans.
For most of the day I sat in a chair listening to my iPod mini with my hood up and head down. Occasionally I would look up to watch Alice's perfect brush strokes and compliment her on them. She would smile and continue working on the model. I was currently scrolling through my playlist to find a new song to listen to when I heard a blood-curling scream. Startled, I jerked the ear bugs from my ear and whipped my head around to see who was screaming, by this time the elastic band holding my hair back had fell. It was a fashion designer that screamed, she was standing over a purple-looking model. She was yelling for someone who knew CPR and no one was stepping forward.
I ran over to the model and knelt beside her. Without even thinking about how awkward it was giving mouth to mouth with a girl, I performed CPR. I couldn't explain the relief I felt when I felt short breaths coming through her mouth and seeing her chest rise and fall. It was short lived, though, when I saw her start to shiver violently. Being an underwear model, she didn't have much on. I took off my hoodies and wrapped it tightly around her while someone went off to find blankets and a doctor, leaving me only in a tank top.
Ten minutes later, she was shipped off to the hospital and a very worried Sylvia appeared back stage. She started grabbing people's arms and whispering in their ears. They all replied and pointed at me. Sylvia walked over to me and stuck out her hand.
"I'm Sylvia, head designer and manager of Victoria Secret." She stuck out her hand for me to shake and grasped my hand firmly. "Thank you for saving Lela's life."
"Of course." I said nodding. She smiled and walked a few feet away from me to an intern. I stood in place awkwardly, not knowing where I should go. Alice had left somewhere during all the commotion and I had no clue where it was.
"What do you mean there's no more models!" I heard Sylvia explode.
"We're already using all our backups and we're still short three!" The intern replied and started naming off the reason they needed so many backups in the first place.
"This is going to be impossible! There is no way we can change the girls fast enough to sustain the show. I need another model! Get. Me. Another. Model!" She whirled around and stomped toward me. She glanced at me quickly before walking toward one of the designers. Not a second later, I saw her back tracking and coming back in front of me.
She slowly looked me up and down, staring at my face for awhile, then traveling to my breast, making me uncomfortable, and finally to my legs.
"Maggie!" She barked. The intern she was talking to before all but dropped what she was doing and sprinted over to her side.
"Yes Mrs. Turner."
"Get me heels. Four and three inches." I looked at her funny while Maggie scurried off to find the heels, coming back two minutes later. "Put these on." Sylvia commanded, handing me the four inch heels. Normally I didn't take orders from anyone. But Sylvia scared me, so I hastily slipped on the shoes.
"Now what?" I asked stupidly.
"Walk!" I jumped a few feet from the volume of her voice and started walking in the heels. Thankfully my mother made me wear heels two years straight when I was thirteen and fourteen. Even though I haven't worn them for two years, it was like riding a bike; you never forget how to walk in heels.
"Like a model!" Sylvia screamed. "Walk like a model!" I straightened my posture and put one foot in front of the other like I have seen other models do before. When I twirled around to face Sylvia, her, and three other models were staring at me with their jaw slacked.
"Umm, hi?"
"Take off your clothes." Sylvia instructed. Time stopped as memories flooded my mind and threatened to push out tears. The very thoughts of The Incident that have haunted me for the past two years were now making their way to my attention. A whimper escaped my lips before I could stop it and my legs started shaking. I willed it to stop though. I couldn't cry over this. I couldn't, I wouldn't. And if Sylvia is letting me be in an underwear fashion show right now like I think she is, then it's the perfect opportunity to rebel and prove to myself that he didn't kill me on the inside. Although he absolutely did, I wouldn't allow it anymore.
"Excuse me!" Sylvia said, snapping her fingers in front of my face. "Is there a problem."
"uh- er- no… I'm sorry." To say it wasn't awkward stripping down to my underwear and bra in front perfect models was a lie. When all my clothes were discarded, Sylvia once again looked me up and down. I felt so utterly self conscious at that moment. I knew I shouldn't have to worry about anything really. My body was fine. I had started running after The Incident so my legs were nice and strong, and I had a naturally flat stomach and large boobs, everything an underwear model needs. I felt my face on the other hand, wan not so perfect for the job of the model. It wasn't ugly, yet not pretty either.
"How old are you?" Sylvia asked.
"Seventeen."
"Fantastic, you're legal. Maggie!" Sylvia called to the intern again. She rushed to her side. "Get this girl a full wax, hair and make-up, a spray tan, and a seamstress to fit some of the clothes. The intern ran off and Sylvia turned to me.
"You have three hours to become an Angel. You already have perfected the 'model stride'. Just start walking when the person directs you to and as soon as you get behind the curtains, strip to nothing so someone can change you." I was not so keen on the idea of being naked in front of all these people, but I would have to deal with it. I had to prove to myself I could do this. Sylvia looked me up and down one more time.
"Good luck darling."
Present
I did great that night, so good that Sylvia practically got on her knees begging me to join permanently with the Angel's. I found that the night on the runway really had helped me begin to get over The Incident, so I accepted Sylvia's offer graciously. Then I saw the pay check, I just about fainted when I saw all the zeroes.
I stared back at my reflection. I no longer felt ugly like I did when I was seventeen. I just felt decent. I knew I was able to look pretty with the right lighting, hair, and make up. But that was just about the only time I felt actually did feel beautiful. I sighed, taking off the rest of my garments and stepping into the shower.
…
I was having the best dream I have had in a long time. I was on a cruise with my mom and younger sister, Sarah. I was fourteen and Sarah was twelve. We were sitting on our beds in the cabin watching The Titanic.
"We're going to die." I whispered to Sarah. "The ships going to sink and we're going to die."
"Shut up Bella." Sarah giggled. She blew her blonde side bangs out of her face so you could see her cat-like green eyes. "Anyways, if Leonardo DiCaprio was there to hold my hand, I wouldn't mind dying." She said dreamingly.
"Dream on." I laughed. Somewhere in my dream-filled mind, I was laughing at the irony of this statement. I was going to Leonardo DiCaprio's party tonight as a personal friend of his.
"My dears!" My mom called from the bathroom. "Get ready for dinner!"
"Kay mom!" Sarah and I chorused, not making any move to get off the bed.
I was brought out of my dream from a loud sound in my room. I snapped my eyes open to see dark blue eyes staring back into mine. I pushed the person off of me and jumped up in my bed, grabbing a pillow and holding it above the person.
"Who are you!" I yelled.
"Calm down." Alice laughed. "It's me." Her small figure stood up on my bed. I raised the pillow above my head and slammed it across her stomach. She fell to the bed with a small cry.
"Do not ever scare me like that again." I dropped the pillow and looked at the time on my alarm clock. It was 2:50… AM! "Alice…" I seethed. "It is two fricken fifty in the morning. I should have thirty minutes longer to sleep. So why am I up now?"
"Because I love you." She smiled sweetly. I climbed out of bed and glared.
"You are so lucky I live in an apartment building and people could hear you scream if I killed you."
"Exactly." Alice smiled, grabbing my hand and dragging me to the bathroom.
Alice straightened my hair and somehow gave me side bangs that I didn't have. My hair hasn't been straightened for awhile and I just now realized how long it was, down to my waist. She brushed gold eye shadow on my eyes after I told her that I was going to be wearing a gold jacket to the Good Morning America interview. I told her it was too much but she wouldn't listen. I tried another tactic, telling her a makeup artist on Good Morning America was just going to change it. She laughed and told me they wouldn't dare mess with Alice Brandon's work. She then continued to apply a whole tube of mascara to my eye lashes and even out all my blemishes with foundation. At last, she stuck me in dark wash skinny jeans, a white tank top, and a red leather jacket.
"I forgot to ask you." I said on my way down to the lobby with Alice. "Why are you up so early?"
"I haven't gone to sleep yet silly." She skipped out of the elevator and smiled over at me. That tiny ball of energy must be inhuman because I have never known someone to be able to stay up that long and still be so energetic. Her hair was even perfect in its halo of black spikes. I rolled my eyes, mystified, and walked toward the door.
"Leaving early?" Danny, the doorman, asked me.
"Unfortunately, I have a meeting at four o' clock. Sylvia is going psycho." He chuckled and nodded in agreement.
"Well have a good day Miss Swan."
"You too, Danny." When the valet brought Alice's yellow Porsche and my red Viper around, we hugged each other goodbye and went towards out cars.
"Oh, and Alice!" I called, one foot in my car and one still standing on the cement.
"Yeah?"
"Don't ever wake me up that early again." She smiled and winked.
"We'll see."
…
By time I got to the corporate building, it was 3:55. I grabbed my Hermes bag along with the gift bag I had for our receptionist. The valet opened the door for me then and let the cold morning air rush into the car. Pulling my red, leather jacket closer to my body I stepped out of the car in my four inch Jimmy Choos. The valet parker gaped when he saw it was me. Although I don't know why, there were probably twelve other Angel's who already arrived. He should be used to models by now. I winked at him anyways and gave him a twenty dollar tip.
"Thanks for the service." I smirked and walked into the warm lobby. Meghan, our very pregnant receptionist, looked up from where she was sitting.
"Oh you poor thing." I cooed, walking over to the desk. "Is Sylvia really making you work right now?" I knew Sylvia could get crazy at times, but that was usually only when we were going through a fashion show. Other than that, she was calm and loving.
"Goodness, no." Meghan laughed. "I'm just trying to scrape in every last penny I can before my little Lexi comes." She rubbed her belly lovingly. I looked over at Meghan in awe, how an eighteen year old pregnant woman can come into work at four am astonishes me.
"I have something for you." I said, holding up a pale pink gift bag with white tissue paper poking out the top.
"You didn't have to get me anything." Meghan blushed and looked down.
"Of course I did!" I handed her the bag. Meghan gently lifted the tissue paper and got the card out. When she opened the card, a 200 dollar gift certificate to a new baby boutique fell out. She bent down to get it off the floor but I stuck out a hand to stop her. I grabbed it myself and handed it to her. When she saw the amount, her eyes widened and tears streamed out.
"Bella! This is so amazing." She read the card through her tears and smiled.
"That's not it though! Look in the bag." She pulled out a clear, plastic case that had a folded up canopy in it.
"It goes over the new circle crib I bought you. It's being delivered to your house tomorrow."
"Oh my gosh Bella. Thank you so much. I cannot believe you got this all for me. I went around the counter and hugged her.
"Well I'm sure everyone else around here has been just as generous." When I pulled away, Meghan was looking at me with raised eyebrows.
"You're the only one actually. Well besides Sylvia." She didn't seem upset about the fact that models she saw every day didn't care enough to get her anything. I rubbed her back soothingly, although she didn't need it.
"Bella!" Ella called from the other side of the hall. Her hair was thrown up into a messy ponytail and she didn't have any makeup on. "Come on! The meeting started five minutes ago." After I gave another hug to Meghan and she thanked me profusely, I scurried over to Ella.
"I got your favorite latte." She said breathlessly.
"Thanks." I grabbed the hot drink from her hand. "You ok?" I asked as we waited for the elevator.
"I honestly just woke up twenty minutes ago."
"Lucky you," I said stepping into the elevator, "Alice woke me up at 3:50!"
"Harsh." Ella murmured.
"You're telling me." The elevator doors slid open to reveal Bob, the janitor.
"Hey Bobby boy. How's your wife holding up?"
"Same old, same old." He leaned closer to me. "If she's not here tomorrow, I didn't do it." I nodded and winked.
"Won't tell a soul." I joked. He laughed along with me and went into the elevator. Ella and I continued down the hall to where the meeting was being held when I heard a booming voice behind me.
"Am I seeing the amazingly gorgeous Belly Swan walk away from me?"
"Can you hold this real quick?" I asked Ella, handing her my latte.
"If you let me take a sip."
"Feel free." I laughed before turning around and running down the hall so I could jump into the massive arms of Emmett McCarthy.
"How you doing squirt?" He asked, setting me down on my feet.
"A little bit tired, but good."
"That's great. Now step back so I can see your outfit." Emmett was in partner with Alice as my fashion designer. It was ironic since he's this huge muscle man you would expect to be a wrestler. I stepped away from him and did a twirl.
"You better like this. You're partner picked it out." He looked it over carefully.
"The red Marc Jacobs leather jacket is amazing. Although it doesn't come out until the fall so I have no clue how you got it. I couldn't even get my hands on it." He shook his head. "The Lucky skinny jeans are cute. My god…" he bent down and lifted one of my legs to get a better look at my shoes. "These are the new strappy Jimmy Choos! A.k.a. the heels that has Heidi Klum herself on a five month waiting list." Well I didn't know that bit of information.
"If Rosalie Hale wasn't your girlfriend, I would swear you're gay." Rosalie Hale was Emmett's drop dead gorgeous girlfriend. She could easily become an actress or whatever she wanted. Instead, she chose to be a mechanic.
"Bella!" Ella called from down the hall. "We need to go! We're ten minutes late!"
"Bye Emmett." I wiggled my fingers good bye and ran over to Ella. I took my latte from her with a quick thanks and walked into the meeting room. All the Angel's heads snapped up to see who walked in so late. They all waved happily over to me.
"Hey Bella." One of them called. I greeted each one of them with a hug and a kiss on the cheek before taking my seat next to Angela, my favorite Angel.
"Hey Ang."
"Hey!" She smiled. She opened her mouth to say something else but the door swung open and Sylvia strode in.
"Good morning my Angels!" She sang.
"Good morning Sylvia." We chorused together. She took her seat at the head of the table and straightened out the papers in her hand.
"We need to discuss what we are going to talk about on Good Morning America this morning. We have a five minute time slot so we need to say a lot in a short amount of time. Usually when we do these things we talk about the new face of our upcoming line. As you know, Caitlyn, our former face, has left us. That means we had to find a new Angel to replace her. After a long time of considering, my bosses and I decided the perfect person to put as the new face. She's young, so we will be able to keep her for awhile." Everyone in this room was young, so that didn't narrow anything down. "She surprises us all with her how she acts." We're models, of course we surprise people. Still not narrowing anything down. "She's absolutely gorgeous." Whoops, there goes me. So we narrowed down one. "She's Bella Swan." My mouth hit the table.
"What!" I exclaimed. Before I could even digest what happened, my fellow models had jumped on top of me in a big group hug.
"Congrats Bella!" Sylvia said above the noise.
…
After the meeting, we all climbed into a limo and went to the set of Good Morning America. When I got there, I figured out I was the only one with a gold jacket, everyone else had silver. They were really playing the whole 'Bella's the new face of the line' thing.
The interview went well. All of us just giggled like school girls and spoke when practiced to speak. When I got home, I didn't even get a chance to take a nap because Alice, wide awake, was waiting for me.
"We have to get you ready for Leo's party!" she exclaimed. After I took a shower, Alice pushed me to my vanity seat and got me ready. She wouldn't allow me to see the finished product until I was fully dressed with my hair and makeup done.
"Ready!" Alice squealed. She covered my eyes and walked me over to the mirror.
"One, two, three!" She lifted her hands from my eyes and let out a squeal. I have to admit, I was impressed. She dressed me in a white, lacy dress with a bateau neckline. The dress was extremely short and ended just about an inch below my butt. A brown leather belt was wrapped around my waist and brown, three-inch boots went up to my knee. (dress on profile) Alice had put on blood red lipstick that made my lips look ten times fuller than they already were. She placed a thick, gold headband in my hair and left the rest of it tumbling in down in waves till it stopped at my waist. I truly looked beautiful.
"Thank you Al." I gave her a hug and when I looked over her shoulder, saw it was only three o' clock. I still had four hours before I had to leave. "Now I'm taking a nap." I ran into my bedroom and jumped on top of my bed, not caring that I was in a short dress.
"You're going to ruin your dress and hair!" Alice cried.
"I have faith you can fix it." I called back, already half asleep.
This is a rewrite of the original chapter. It is much longer than the other chapters. Tell me if you like the length or not. Oh, and if you think you figured out what happened to Bella, guess again. It's not so obvious.
Please Review!