A/N at bottom. Thanks for reading!

Love Song

Chapter 1 - Bella POV

"It's on, it's on!" I heard Rose scream. Jasper chuckled throatily, following her through to the living room as the familiar theme tune filled the house.

"Are you coming, Bella?" he asked. I shook my head. I wasn't ready. Not yet.

"I'll be through soon."

"Don't miss it," he smiled.

I refreshed my youtube page. My own face stared back at me from my laptop; a guitar in hand and my mouth frozen open mid-song. If things went well tonight my page would soon be inundated with comments from people critiquing my music. Honestly, if things went badly tonight the same thing would still happen.

"Bella!" Rose demanded.

I didn't want to watch. I might only appear for a few seconds, or not at all. I almost didn't want to see myself up on the TV screen, singing for the audience with the judges looking on. Obviously I knew the result, so the suspense wasn't the same for me as for those watching at home, but it's never nice watching yourself on screen.

"Don't make me come in there and get you," Rose called again.

"Come on, sugar," Jasper added. "No use putting off the inevitable."

I could hear the first singers starting up, the mandatory invasive questioning from the judges as they probed for a sob story they already knew they had. I'd refused to give any sob story on my application form. If I was going to get anywhere it was going to be because I could sing.

"Bella!"

I hadn't even wanted to audition. The show only accepts soloists and vocal groups, whereas I've been in a band with Rosalie and Jasper since we were little. If they couldn't come with me then I didn't want to go. I hadn't even thought of auditioning until an email arrived with the link copied in close to a hundred times. Rosalie and Jasper both denied any involvement, but said I should do it anyway. I never found out who sent the email, but they managed to coerce me into auditioning. Jasper said it would be good for the band. Any publicity is good publicity.

I have news for you: auditioning is not like what they show on TV. You wait twelve hours to be shuttled into a holding room with a hundred other contestants at a time. Slowly you're called off the audition for a producer, with only the talented, beautiful, and crazy going through.

Twelve hours had never passed by so slowly, the wait only alleviated by the friendships I made in the crowd. Well, friendship: singular. I was next to a guy a few years younger than me. His name was Jacob and he was the lead singer of a boy band. Not a boy band in the One Direction style, but more a band that is stocked with male singers. He said Mumford and Sons was more his style, but he had the clean cut looks that could have pegged him for boy band pop. Twelve hours is a long wait, and he was one of the few things that kept me sane.

Finally called to a booth I was relieved to be able to move again. My legs were not so thrilled. After sitting still for so long I felt unsteady, and careened into a guy in front of me. Annoyed with myself more than anything, this swiftly turned to red-hot embarrassment when the guy stooped down to help me up. He barely looked at me, doing nothing more than was polite, but he clearly possessed striking good looks. I can't help but become embarrassed around good-looking people.

If you get a call back you go through to the live shows. Pretty boy got a call back and didn't look surprised. I immediately categorised him as going through in the 'beautiful' category, rather than talented, because it would be too unfair for him to have both looks and talent. Plus, I was jealous and it was easier to dismiss him that way.

Don't get me wrong, I did get a call back, but I'm not super model beautiful, so that left me with the crazy or the talented category. Jasper maintains I'm in the talented category, but he's my cousin: he has to say that.

The next round of auditions is different. Rosalie and Jasper came with me for them and watched me when I went up onstage. I was sad not to have Charlie with me, but my dad has to work. There are only about twenty acts per day in front of the judges, and yet the wait feels just as long. Jacob was there with his band, plus their friends and family: it was a large group and I felt a little overshadowed, as if my two friends weren't good enough. The only other person with so few companions was pretty boy – he had a small pixie-like girl with him, and a hulking bodyguard-type figure. I smirked, imagining Pretty Boy was so into himself he already thought he needed protection before the fame hit. Maybe he was genuinely that irritating. Attractive people have a tendency to be irritating.

"Isabella Marie Swan!" Rosalie's tone was no nonsense now, and I sucked in a ragged breath, saying goodbye to my youtube page before heading through to the living room.

A joke act was on. I cringed to see the hope in their eyes.

"Relax," Jasper murmured, sitting me down on the floor and sitting on the couch behind me. I leant back against him and he rubbed my shoulders gently. He'd always been great at de-stressing me.

"You have nothing to worry about," Rose chimed in. "You have more talent in your little finger than most of these idiots."

An ad break had me offering to fetch drinks, but Jasper's grip tightened on my shoulders, keeping me in place. They both knew if they gave me an excuse to run away now I probably wouldn't return.

"This is it!" Rose crowed as the show started up again.

I covered my face with a pillow. She made a quick attempt to pull it away, giving up and instructing Jasper to make sure I at least listened to my performance. I heard my awkward answers stammered back to the judges and cringed deep inside. I was pretty certain my internal organs had never been so small. Involuntarily, I squealed in mortification when the music started up and I heard myself begin to play my guitar. I really wished I was holding it right then: I wanted the comfortable feel of it beneath my hands, grounding me and keeping me calm.

I had agonised over what to sing. I'd flicked between girly pop and indie. Eventually Rosalie had decided for me, stating a cover of Paramore's 'The Only Exception' was one of the few songs I could manage acoustically without further practise. I'd bristled at the comment – she always digs at my talent – and followed her judgement when Jasper hadn't objected. And now I was up on screen, sounding nothing like the original, and probably upsetting thousands of Paramore fans.

"You were brilliant," Jasper whispers, and I realise it's over. My brief spot has gone and now there's another hopeful up on screen. "And you're going to be brilliant on the live shows too."

After that I was finally able to watch the show, sizing up my competition. I still didn't know for sure if I was through to the live shows. They buzzed a certain number of contestants through before making their final selections by re-watching our old performances. I really wanted to make it to the live shows now, as much as I'd been against auditioning in the first place. It was a matter of pride.

The end of the show was rapidly approaching when I saw Pretty Boy again. I felt my stomach knot in anticipation; spitefully hoping someone so preternaturally good-looking would fall flat on their face. I should have known better. There was a reason they were showing him last. The last performance of the show was reserved for the crazies and the spectacular – never the mediocre – and Pretty Boy was definitely not crazy.

I heard Rosalie curse softly. "He is seriously talented."

"Yeah," Jasper said. "Why have we not come across him on youtube?"

"Not everyone has a youtube account, Jasper," I said.

"This is the 21st Century, Bella," he scoffed. "Anyone who wants to be somebody has a youtube account."

"Well search for him," Rosalie said. "Edward Cullen. See if anything comes up."

Jasper opened up his laptop and began to search. I knew if he found anything I'd probably stay up all night analysing it and looking for flaws – anything to prove this boy was a mere mortal like the rest of us, but there was nothing.

"He might be missing from the internet," Jasper said, "But you, Bella, certainly are not." He turned his laptop to face me. My youtube page was raccheting up views, new comments piling in.

Rose gasped beside me. "What are they saying?"

"Mostly positive," Jasper said, scanning through it all. "A lot of surprise Bella's in a band. Some say they like her better as a soloist."

Rose harrumphed and I rubbed her arm. "What do they know? If I get on the show it's just one more step in the right direction. It'll get us out there. I wouldn't leave you guys."

"We know," Jasper smiled. "Don't worry about it: we want this for you."

The phone rang then, Charlie calling to congratulate me on my performance. I blushed, wishing I could hug him.

"That Cullen kid," he said suddenly. "He was real good."

"Dad," I whined down the phone. "Don't remind me."

"Alice must've been real proud." I frowned at the odd statement, remembering Alice had been introduced as the pixie-like girl backstage. It seemed a strange piece of information for my dad to have picked up.

"Yeah, I guess," I shrugged, not quite sure what to do with that statement. We exchanged a few more banalities before he rang off, finishing by saying "I'm proud of you, kiddo."

We re-watched the show half a dozen more times that night, and each time I became a little less reluctant to watch myself on screen. Eventually I was willing to put down the pillow.

When I went to bed that night I was convinced I recognised Cullen's face. It seemed to smile at me from my dreams.

{EB}

Hello! Thank you to anyone who reads this!

I've already plotted out the entire story, so expect regular updates from me. Sorry for the slow start - it picks up soon. I promise!

Reviews would be lovely (but not as lovely as Edward. Close though.).