A/N: Don't hate me for a new story already! I am still working on "Changing Prejudices", but got kind of stuck on chapter 6. I know where I'm going with it, and once I get past chapter 6, it'll be just fine, I'm sure.

In the meantime, here's another one. Let's how you like this one.

Disclaimer: All Twilight characters belong to Stephenie Meyer and not me.

Ship Wrecked

Chapter 1

BPOV

I knew I was going to be late, but I didn't care. Edward had wounded me too deep for me to care. Edward was treating me like I was a child. As if being twenty-six made him so much more of an adult. We had been friends for two years, and I really liked him, as more than friends.

Two weeks ago I told him how I felt. He shot me down.

"Aww, Bella, you're young. You'll have plenty of crushes before you get serious." Tips for guys--that is the worst thing you could say to a girl who is telling you how she feels. That is not a way to let her down easy. Brushing it off as a crush? Jerk.

That had been two weeks ago, and I had not spoken to him since. Of course, I hadn't had a real chance to talk to him anyway. Not with practice and cleaning the boat and everything.

Edward was the Assistant Cruise Director and Production Manager on the cruise line Dream's Inspiration cruise ship. I was a singer and a background dancer and had been so for the past two summers. This year I would also be working with either the Youth Activities Director or as a waitress. I had just finished my junior year of college and was taking a year off to make some money.

I had promised that year to Dream, hoping that Edward and I could spend a lot of time together and that maybe he would feel the same way about me. So much for that. At least I found out right away instead of waiting around with false hopes.

I knew the real reason he'd shot me down of course. He was beautiful—his emerald green eyes and messy bronze hair and gorgeous body. My plain brown hair and eyes could never attract him. But we were friends! I had deluded myself into thinking he was different—that he could like me for me and get past the outward appearance. Nope. Not gonna happen.

I burst into the practice room to find the other performers still warming up to fast music.

"Bella, you're late," Edward said along with the beat.

"Hey, there's a first time for everything." I took my place next to Alice.

"Progress, you actually spoke to him," she said.

"Not everyone knows about the fight, and I want to keep it that way. It is polite."

"What fight? Before practice, he came and asked me if you were mad at him. Apparently, you've been avoiding him."

"What?!"

"Well, after he said what he said, what did you say?"

"I thought I said 'Child?! I'll be twenty-one in a month.' I guess it was just in my head. I might have just walked away. What did you tell him?"

"I told him that yes, you were mad, and then I told him the reason. He acted like he had no idea what I was talking about. He just started class."

"Bella, Alice, if you two are finished, we can begin the numbers for Opening Night. Thank you," Edward said.

I was female lead in the Opening Night performance, and I put everything aside to concentrate on practicing with Mike, the male lead. He was having trouble with his throat so we had to keep restarting.

I hated love songs. They never change and always tell of a love that did not exist for me. I preferred to sing songs about real love—not the kind that was really more lust. Lust at first sight and all that crap filled the love songs usually chosen for our performances.

My parents divorced when I was three, and they had each had many failed marriages since then. My high school friends had all married or moved in with guys right out of school. Most had children and were alone now.

I had been given no examples of marriages that were based on true love. And none of them lasted as they would have otherwise. I knew that if I ever got married, it would have to be an exceptional thing. The guy would have to dig very deep to get around all the hurt I'd buried myself behind. Love did not exist to me, and I was beginning to think that it never would.

I had done extensive research on my examples. I had gathered many facts. I had never had a boyfriend, had never been kissed, and had never been asked out on a date. All the girls that got the attention were completely opposite from me. I was not what guys wanted. There was nothing about me that could hold them, nothing special like there was with the women in the books I spent so much of my free time reading.

We practiced from seven am to ten am, and then Edward allowed us to leave. Some of us had other things to do, and others just lazed around the ship. My day was full, but I thought I had a few minutes for a nap. At twelve, I had to meet my friend Angela for a talk. After that, I was going to help with the finishing touches on the ship.

The next day, Friday, was the first day of our first cruise of the summer season. Edward, Alice, and I usually helped with cleaning. There were two weeks between the spring and summer seasons, and the ship was supposed to be cleaned very well. There were many last minute things to do and we always helped. All the repairs were already done and we were left to clean up after them.

We had a staff meeting at six, and dinner was at seven, so we all had to be dressed and ready at fifteen to six. Even with all I had to do, I still had two hours to nap before Angela.

I had only been asleep ten minutes before the phone rang.

"I need you to meet me in the practice room at one. Practice threw Mike's voice out completely; I have to do his part tomorrow. I need you to go over it with me."

"Um, okay, Edward, at one. Bye." It took me a few minutes to realize that my whole day would have to be rearranged, starting with Angela.

Angela was a very shy girl that needed to talk to someone every once in a while, and I was the one she'd picked. I loved being there for her, and that she trusted me so much. It was just an inconvenience sometimes. When I told her I'd have to make our meeting an eleven o'clock lunch, she sounded relieved. She'd probably just been too shy to say that eleven was better for her. I tried to tell her that she shouldn't be that way; that I was there for her when she needed it and that if I couldn't do it when she suggested, we'd work it out. She still always let me pick the day and time.

After I hung up, I looked towards my stateroom door. And there, on the floor, was the piece of paper that all staff dreaded. It was the mandate from the captain that we were to wear our uniforms from that time on. Only certain times during the day were we allowed to wear normal clothes. However, we had to keep them on at all times for the first few days of each cruise. That way the guests could tell who we were.

We hated the uniforms. Each department had the same uniform--regulation button up white and black shirt and black pants. The deck crew had white stripes on their pants. Each department had different colored bars on the shirt shoulder, called epaulets. The entertainers thought there was no point for us to keep ours on since it wasn't necessary that they know who we were. They saw us on stage occasionally, what more could they expect? We couldn't do anything to help anyone. The uniforms just created embarrassing situations where we had to try to answer a nonsense question from a passenger while also trying to steer them to someone who could really help. But there was no arguing with the captain or the cruise director.

I put mine on, and then left my instructions for the maids. Every summer it was always the same thing: no need to clean up, just leave fresh towels and sheets. I could clean up after myself. There was no point in creating more trouble for them.

Angela's room was on the deck below mine, and before I reached the elevator, I ran into a new guy who was lost. He actually ran into me and almost knocked me down.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, his eyebrows furrowing in embarrassment.

"It's okay, I get knocked into or knocked down all the time. Mostly it's the air that does it too." We laughed lightly, both of us embarrassed.

"I really am sorry, I'm sort of lost. I know my room is somewhere on one of these decks, but I'm not sure which one."

"Didn't you get a map?"

"Yeah, I wanted to try to get around without it. I left it in my room," he said with a soft unfamiliar accent. With his deep red skin tone and jet black hair, I guessed that maybe he was Native American.

"Probably a good thing. The pros pick a newbie every season to pick on. They choose them by the maps they carry."

"Pros? Newbies?"

"Pros are staff members returning to the ship, newbies, are new staff." We had reached his cabin at that point and I turned to continue on.

"Thank you for showing me the way. Which department are you with?"

"Up, sorry, here's your cabin and I gotta lot of stuff to do so I gotta go. See ya."

I could have listened to him talk all day long about almost anything, and I felt bad about cutting him off, but most people don't believe me when I tell them I'm a performer. I'd rather just show them. I don't exactly have a dancer's body. And as I said before, I tend to trip over air when walking. None of that applied, though, when I was dancing. I forgot all about it and enjoyed myself—especially since I was usually in the very back when dancing.

I got to Angela's door and, as I suspected, I spent from 11:02 to 12:50, listening to her struggles and being her friend. Angela was very shy and a bit too tall and just needed someone to talk to. She was a Pro; she'd worked for the Inspiration in the library for the last six years. She really liked a guy named Ben that also worked in the library, but he was kind of short. They'd gotten very close recently, almost as close as Edward and I, and she was considering asking him out on our next port, but was hesitating because of the height difference. It was a long conversation.

I was grateful that we called it a lunch date, because after we were finished, I had to run to get my practice clothes and get to the practice room. Edward kept me practicing until after four and then he wanted to talk.

"Alice told me you were mad and why you were mad. I didn't realize."

"It hurt. You treated me like I was a little kid." I so did not want to continue this conversation. It really hurt to have put out my feelings for him, and then him throw them back like I was a little kid with a simple crush.

"Bells, you do have a while to grow-"

"Edward, do you realize that I will be twenty-one in two weeks? It's not like I'm fifteen or sixteen, or even that I asked you to marry me. I know that I'm not very close to your age. But there is no call to treat me like a baby."

"Besides, there is that one little rule about staff not dating staff. I'm truly, very sorry. I'm not good for you. Now, can we forget this and be friends again? I haven't really talked to you in two weeks."

"Give me a few more days."

"You've been mad for two weeks! It's not healthy to hold onto anger for so long."

"Who said I was still mad? Right now, I can't just go back to being your little sister and back up plan. If you really need to talk, or if you need help with anything, you can call me. But give me a few days." I walked away without getting an answer.

I felt I had to back off a little bit to get over the hurt. I felt bad because I was the one he always talked to about problems and how to work through things on the ship, even more so than Alice, but I was so mad at him that I felt smothered. If I could have jumped ship without consequences right then, I would have.

Back in my room, I sat on my bed for a few minutes before I noticed the voice mail light on my phone blinking. It was Edward asking me to do two songs for lounge night that night. He'd forgotten to ask me during practice. Tyler, the Cruise Director, had requested that I take Mike's place in that night's entertainment. There was barely any emotion in his voice—strictly professional.

The ship wasn't officially opened for passengers until the next day, but for a little extra, some were allowed to come aboard early. There were ten early bird passengers this trip and the Cruise Director over Edward needed two numbers to fill in for the sick Mike. I called Tyler and agreed to do it.

I immediately started deciding on the songs. I decided to sing songs that would help me feel better. Tyler also preferred that the opening and closing nights to be up beat and fun, since he thought of them as the bookends of the whole experience. I was restricted on my songs, and I had most of the others already planned. I chose "I Will Survive" and "Best for Last." One very pointed and one very hopeful.

Dream's Inspiration was the smallest ship in the fleet. We didn't have as many dinner options as the bigger ones, and that was okay with our passengers. They paid extra to have the smaller, more intimate cruises that gave them more opportunity on land and closer relationships with the crew. We had more ports and fewer passengers and crew.

The Inspiration had two restaurants, and the largest one had a stage and there were a few nights with a show during dinner. All other shows were before and after the dinner hours. All crew were required to go to one of the restaurants every night. We had to scan our ID cards to prove we were there.

Lounge nights were nights when the captain wanted everything to seem casual and relaxed. It was just different singers on stage, standing or sitting still, doing their thing. There were only a couple of lounge nights on some of the cruises and the show for the early birds was one of those nights.

Since I was going to sing, it would take me longer to get ready. Alice never let me just wear whatever I wanted. She had to have a say in every lounge night outfit. However, this was a surprise and I didn't let her know, so there was no way she'd know to come knock on my door.

I decided on my midnight blue floor-length dress with a sheer dark blue duster. It made me look older and I wanted to look as close to my age as possible. When I looked in the mirror, I could understand Edward treating me like a baby. I have never looked older than 14, and I send out a vibe of "little sister needs protection of a big brother".

Before I could turn from the mirror to start looking for my meager makeup supply, Alice walked in my door.

"Bella Swan, why in the world didn't you let me know you had a lounge night tonight?! We have so much to do and so little time. I assume you've already picked something out to wear, since it is so close to time?" She surveyed my dress laying across my bed. It was one of the few dresses I had bought myself that she approved of. I usually ended up feeling extremely uncomfortable in whatever she bought for me.

Since lounge nights were supposed to be elegant, I allowed Alice to do my hair and makeup without protest. I wasn't very experienced in those areas. I preferred to be natural, no frills, just comfort. I also wanted to look my best for Edward, and maybe for the new guys on staff.

New seasons were always exciting to me. There were a few pros that had worked Dream for years, but it was more common for people to work only one season. Most worked to have a summer job. It was amazing the things you learned from talking to new people. People came from all over the world to work for Dream and a lot of them ended up on the Inspiration.

Edward had held his position for six years. I had no idea what he did during the Inspiration's three-month off-season, but I did know he lived in Florida. I knew surprisingly little about his personal life away from Dream even though I'd known him and his sister for two years.

I met his sister Alice at a visitation day at my college. She stayed in my dorm room for the weekend, and we really enjoyed hanging out.

"I'm going to work on a cruise ship this summer as a maid. It sounds really amazing and I would love the experience."

"Oh, yeah? Which ship?"

"Dream's Inspiration."

"Hey! Me too! I'm going to be a performer, and my brother is the production manager there. He's worked there for four years."

"Cool. I barely got the maid position. It was only because one of the applicants got pregnant and couldn't commit for the whole summer."

My biggest passion at the time was singing, and it came out without me even thinking about it. Alice heard me singing around my dorm room one day and offered to ask Edward to give me an audition. I hesitantly agreed, knowing that once Alice got something into her head, there was no changing her mind.

I got a spot on the performance team that summer and the next summer was given the female lead singer spot. I say it was only because at the last minute the former lead bugged out of the season, but Edward and Alice say it was my talent. However, I wasn't very good at the dancing, so I could be in the back for the dances and not always in the spotlight. We spent a lot of time together, and became best friends.

Edward kept his home life away from the Inspiration quiet. Alice lived with their parents in Chicago, so she didn't really know that much about him. Or at least she didn't talk about his life that much. He'd been on his own since he was eighteen. I knew he lived alone, but he kept everything else to himself.

We talked about other things, though. He knew a lot about my life, but only because he asked questions. I didn't like to talk about myself a lot, but he always avoided answering the questions I asked him. I soon learned not to ask. We were very similar, so from what Alice did say and what I found out from Edward, I was able to guess on some things. But I was wrong about his feelings, I guess.