If you're wondering about the randomness of this story, it's actually pretty funny. I asked someone to give me a random phrase to write a story about, and she "drama classes".
I can find Twilight in something as random as even that.
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, Bella or Edward. If anything, they own me.
Takes place post-Eclipse. All Bella POV.
All canon besides: Bella is more involved with the wedding than she is supposed to be. Alice asked her to help. And--Edward, Bella, and Alice haven't graduated yet.
Nice readers want to make their authors happy. Review, review, review!!
"Bella, I only want this for you."
I rolled my eyes. Edward and I were lying together on my bed. I glanced at the clock absentmindedly. 3:21.
"Edward," I said, exasperated, "I'll never be enough for you, will I?"
His face appeared shocked for a moment before throwing me a disgusted look. And then taking me gently into his arms.
"Bella…" he murmured as he brushed my cheeks with his cool fingertips. "How can you suspect that?" The glowing numbers threw a bluish tint over his face. "You really are quite absurd sometimes, I must say. That was nothing of what I was actually implying by asking you to do this, love."
He dipped his head and kissed the edge of my jaw softly for reassurance.
"After graduation and the wedding," he continued against my skin, "you will not have another opportunity like this. Not for a long time."
"Opportunity? Excuse me?" I wiggled out from under him, not willing to let him try to kiss me into this. "You and Alice have this really distorted idea in your heads that my being with you is restricting me from having human experiences! Oh please, Edward."
He gave me an annoyed look.
"As if I would ever, in a million years," I went on rebelliously, "do things like go to prom if it weren't for you and your superhuman strength."
I paused, raising my eyebrows at him.
"Or join drama classes."
He sighed, and his hair ruffled lightly in a warm breeze from the window. "Bella, you never know. You might enjoy it. Meet new people…"
"And why would I ever want to accumulate friends now? After the wedding, I could very well kill them!"
Edward's face darkened and I couldn't catch his eyes. I watched as his jaw tensed.
I reached up and placed a hand on the side of his smooth face. "Edward…" I began.
But abruptly, his eyes grew wide—alarmed. He slid out from under me and into the closet across the room in barely a split second.
My bedroom door opened slowly, throwing light from the hallway onto my floor. My eyes refocused.
"Bella?" Charlie asked.
I was still in the same position, my hand suspended in midair where Edward's face had been four seconds ago. The bedspread was hideously rumpled.
"Bella, I thought I heard…." He trailed off, rubbing at his eye drowsily. I dropped my hand and moved into a more compromising position.
I better play this cool. "What are you doing up, Dad?"
"I was just going to the bathroom…" His eyes narrowed and I could see that he was becoming suspicious now. "I could ask the same for you," he said stiffly.
Oh, crap. Umm…
"I just woke up half a second before you walked in," I reported, gleeful to have found an acceptable reason to have been talking to my boyfriend and waving my hand in the air at 3 am. "I was having a weird dream and it woke me up."
"Really?" He looked disbelieving. What was up with this sudden curiosity? Charlie wasn't one to…
"…Because I could swear I heard you talking to someone…" He had walked further into the room then, and was glancing around.
"Did you call him on the phone?" He asked frankly. It seemed that we were past the evasiveness.
I rolled my eyes, trying desperately to be convincing. "Dad, you know I sleep-talk. I said his name in my sleep right before you came in. And then I woke up. Okay?" I was kind of getting annoyed. I mean, I had thought that my phony-explanation was brilliant when I thought it up. Apparently not. This newly perceptive Charlie seemed to be trying to make up for missing the fact that my soon-to-be husband wasn't exactly human.
By inspecting my room past midnight, that is.
"Hmm…well, I've heard you talk about him in your sleep before, and it didn't sound like that..." My face reddened. What could I have said? "So I want to make this clear, that—"
Oh my god. He must be joking. "Dad, just because Edward and I are getting married does not mean he that is going to start sneaking into my room at three in the morning, okay? God. Paranoid, are we?"
Finally, Charlie gave up, gruffly stating goodnight before closing the door behind him. I didn't hear his footsteps, so I assumed that he was listening in for more Edward-Bella conversation. I sighed loudly, hoping he would get the hint, as my eyes trailed to the closed closet. A moment later his footsteps trailed into his bedroom and Edward was by my side.
"Edward…" I whispered, locking my arms around his neck. He pulled me beside him and clutched me tight to his body. I shivered, and he draped the quilt in my lap.
I smiled up at him. "Pretty convincing, huh?"
"Oh yes, you were terrific. All the more reason to join a drama class."
I groaned, trying to fit all of my pent-up anxiety into as little volume as possible.
"Bella, I changed my mind about your acting abilities. I was wrong…you really do have potential—"
"Potential to go where?" I asked a little too loudly. Edward put a finger to my lips for a brief moment, listening to Charlie's thoughts. Then he nodded for me to go on when the coast was clear.
"Potential to go where, Edward?" I repeated more quietly. "I'll be a vampire before my next birthday. I'll say the fabulous career as an actress is pretty much out the window."
He looked at me pleadingly, boring his topaz eyes into mine. And then it all came together.
He wanted this for me, yes, but not for the sake of potential fame and fortune. Oh no, he wanted me to stay human. He wanted me to take classes, fall in love with acting, and want to stay human so I could be an actress.
That was Edward's plan. Unbelievable.
I took one look at him and his expression melted into a sheepish half-smile.
"You are unbelievable, Edward," I hissed. "I can't—I don't understand how now—now—you could still be trying to trick me into a human existence. You are unbelievable."
"Love, I'm not trying to trick you into anything." He turned the full force of his eyes—topaz butterscotch from hunting earlier—and smiled his crooked smile at me.
"Oh, no," I said, shaking my head accusingly at him while trying desperately to escape his gaze. "If you think you're going to dazzle your way out of this one, Edward, you are highly mistaken."
He sighed.
"Explain," I commanded.
"There's nothing to explain, Bella. Yes, that possibility crossed my mind…" I snorted and he threw me a dirty look before continuing. "But truly, my only want is for you to be happy. And you really are quite good, perhaps in the future—"
"The distant future," I interrupted to remind him.
"Yes, Bella," he said slowly, enunciating each syllable. "But even after, you may find that it is something you would like to pursue."
"But why do I have to take classes now? I have to plan our wedding with Alice…" I raked my brain for prior commitments.
"We won't be able to spend as much time together," I offered, futile.
"I thought that…well, that perhaps it would give you a chance to spend time with humans." He hesitated. "…Before you…can't any longer. Simply a human experience, as you said."
I took a deep breath. Edward's intentions were always honorable, no matter how absurd the argument.
"But I don't want you to do it, Bella…" he continued distantly, looking thoughtful, "not unless you truly do as well…really, love, you have enough stress now… I don't want to—"
"I'll do it, Edward."
His eyes sparkled, surprised. "Do you really want to?"
"Of course not," I replied honestly. "But I can tell you want me to. And I will."
He looked like he was ready to protest, so I started talking again. No way was I about to let him argue against his own case.
"Really, Edward. It's fine. I'll join the drama club at school. I think I may have missed the spring musical…um, but I'm sure there are still meetings. This will be my human experience, okay? And after drama season has come and gone—nothing else."
He looked as if he might burst with joy. His entire face was glowing so radiantly I couldn't look away. I smiled up at him, dumbfounded, and then closed my eyes, resting my head against his cool chest.
