This is the companion story to Save the Last Dance. It's a sequel of sorts so if you haven't read the first story you might want to go back and read it beacause in later chapters, you will need to recall information from Save the Last Dance to understand what exactly is going on.

I was really upset about ending Save the Last Dance and I thought about doing a sequel involving Bella and her story, but it didn't really sit right with me. For right now, I think Bella's story is over and another one is beginning. Once this story is over, I might go back and write some more about Bella, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

This story is my brain child. Besides the characters Stephenie Meyer has created, it is completely my own. I really hope everyone will enjoy this story as much as they enjoyed my last story. Right now, this is going to to be a completely different story because there is a new narrator that you have to get to know. After the whole background starts to melt into place, it will start to be more of a sequel and less of a completely different story.

So, here is Dancing Through Life, and yes, the title does come from the song from Wicked, the musical, although it really has nothing to do with the song.

Vi908

"It's so hard to describe. It's not like love at first sight, really.
It's more like…gravity moves. When you see her, suddenly it's
not the earth holding you here anymore. She does."

-Jacob Black in Eclipse

"Caroline, I can't believe you talked me into doing this stupid volunteering thing with you this summer," Ava groaned as we cruised smoothly down the streets of Port Angeles in her black Hyundai Sonata.

"It won't be that bad," I told her. I had talked her into helping out at the ballet studio we had danced at since we were four years old. "Don't you remember when the older girls used to come in and help us? We loved it."

Ava Morgan and I had known each other since we were four years old. We had met on the very first day of ballet class and quickly formed a bond. At sixteen years old, we were both still dancing together and she had grown into my best friend. Even though we were best friends, we were very different. I considered myself to be an optimist, while Ava usually saw the glass half-empty. Ava loved hiking and anything that involved outdoors and nature. I, on the other hand, hated the great outdoors; I was more of an indoors type of girl. I would rather sit inside and curl up with a nice book than go camping. I was dark haired and dark eyed with very fair skin while Ava was blonde, blue-eyed and golden brown. She was the knockout between the two of us. Ava took a great deal of pride in her appearance, and while I did enjoy looking nice, I was very low maintenance. The only thing that really brought us together was ballet. It was both of our passions.

"What are we going to be doing anyway?" She asked as she parked the car about a block away from our studio. The studio we danced at was in the middle of downtown Port Angeles and there was very limited parking. We always had to park really far away.

"I don't know. Probably just helping out around the studio with the little girls," I shrugged as we walked the rest of the way, our matching black dance bags slung over our shoulders.

"What have you gotten me into?" Ava said mostly to herself. It was a known fact that Ava did not have any patience whatsoever with children.

As we got to the ballet studio we both dearly loved, we found it busting with people inside, like it usually was during this time of year. It was the beginning of the summer term and tons of moms would be bringing their little girls in to start ballet classes within the next few weeks, and like the beginning of every new term, Madame Levine, the owner of the ballet studio, was running around like a chicken with her head cut off.

"Ah, good, Ava, Caroline, you're here," She practically sprinted up to us, breathing heavily. Her forehead was covered in sweat. Madame Levine was a short, plump woman of about 55. She had short, super curly red hair that was obviously not her natural hair color and big brown eyes. Her face was always heavily made up with light blue eye shadow and bright red lipstick. Although she didn't look like it, she was a very good ballet instructor—probably the best one in Port Angeles. "Ava, I want you to take the younger girls and go through stretching, and Caroline, you man the front desk."

"What?" Ava cried out indignantly. I wasn't too happy with my job either. I would rather be doing what she was assigned to do. "Can't we switch?"

"I don't have time for this," Madame Levine ran off in a flurry flocked by mothers trying to get her attention. That was a very Madame-esque reaction.

"Good luck," I told Ava as she headed towards the studio room. She looked very pissed off. Hopefully she wouldn't be too rude to the kids and scare them off.

"I'm going to need it," She grudgingly trudged out of my eyesight, and I laughed. Ava was always overdramatic. One afternoon of stretching with the little girls wasn't going to kill her like she thought it would.

The front desk, which no one was sitting at currently, was visible from the minute you walked in the door usually, but now, it was surrounded by plenty of mothers waiting to be reassured that their children would be well taken care of. I sat down on the comfortable office chair only to be bombarded by questions from every direction. I took a deep breath before trying to calmly answer every one of them.

It took about twenty minutes to square away all of the questions the mothers had to ask. After they had thought of everything they possibly could, I had sent them to the parents' waiting room where they could look through a big window and see their daughters dancing in the studio. That left me all by myself with nothing to do. There was an old computer on the desk, and I didn't have anything better to do than to play Solitaire, a game at which I was horribly bad at.

About five minutes later and three lost games of Solitaire later, I was interrupted by the tinkling of bells, a signal that someone had just entered the front door, and the sound of voices.

"Come on, Seth, we're already late," A male voice said. It was very strange to hear a man in the ballet studio. It was usually just mothers who brought their daughters; it was supposed to be some kind of bonding experience.

"Quil, I don't understand why you had to--"Another male voice said, but it cut off abruptly in the middle of a sentence.

I minimized my game and finally looked up to see who was here and was I surprised or what. Two extremely tall, extremely good looking boys, no, they looked more like men, had entered along with a cute little girl. All three of them had the same shiny, inky black hair and silky russet colored skin. It was easy to tell that they lived on the Quileute reservation in La Push. One of them, he was bulkier and maybe a little bit shorter, had the tiny girl by her hand. At most, she looked four or five. The other man was younger looking and not as muscular as the first, but there was no denying he was strong. The weird thing about it was that he was staring very oddly…at me.

"Hi," I said awkwardly, trying to ignore the cute guys staring at me. I hoped I didn't have anything stuck in my teeth or on my face. "How can I help you?"

"I need to sign Claire, here, up for dance lessons," The bulkier one said. I smiled at the little girl, Claire, and she giggled and waved at me.

"Okay, just fill out these forms for me, please," I handed him a clipboard with several sheets of paper on it. Afterwards, I got up from behind the desk and walked over to Claire. "Claire, do you want to go join the other girls?"

Claire nodded and I offered my hand to her. The younger man was still staring at me as I led Claire off to the studio where the other girls her age were. As I walked back, I looked in one of the mirrors to make sure I didn't have anything stuck in my teeth or on my face. I didn't. I could only imagine why he was staring at me so strangely.

When I walked back into the lobby, the two men were standing close together, whispering, but when they saw me, they jumped apart. Now, both of them were staring at me. I sat back behind the desk silently, wishing I was anywhere but here. I tried to pretend that I didn't know that they were looking at me, but it was hard. Their gazes made me squirm.

"So, do you, uh, dance here?" The bulkier one asked me after we had a long period of sufficiently awkward silence. I was grateful to him for breaking the ice in the room.

"Yeah, I do. I have for twelve years," I told him. Then, I added in something else. "My name is Caroline Jones, by the way."

"Oh, I'm Quil," He gestured to himself before pointing to his friend, the one staring at me, "and this is my friend Seth."

"It's nice to meet you," I smiled, tossing my dark brown hair over my shoulder. Seth closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in deeply. I wondered why he did that. He was extremely cute, but he was rather odd.

"Why aren't you dancing?" Seth spoke up for the first time. A weird feeling ran through me when I heard his voice. It was beautiful, if you could call a voice beautiful. I wouldn't mind hearing him talk more.

"I'm volunteering here during the summer," I explained to them. Seth seemed to be paying close attention to every single word I said. "On the days I don't have classes, I'll be up here helping Madame Levine. She always needs extra help during the summer term."

"You'll be up here a lot then?" Seth asked, his voice once again stirring feelings deep inside of me. I wasn't sure if I liked these feelings.

"Uh, yeah," I responded. Seth was really good looking and he seemed to be interested in me. Something had to be up.

I wasn't used to having attention showered on me from handsome guys. With a best friend as pretty and blonde as Ava, it was natural for boys to overlook me as the girlfriend type. I had always been the friend. To be honest, it never really bothered me. I had dated a couple of guys for short periods of time, but I preferred to be single. Now that a guy as cute as Seth was paying attention to me, I had no idea what to do. I just tried to channel Ava. She always seemed to know what to do around guys.

Half an hour and some small talk later, class was dismissed and the mothers and their daughters came pouring out of the studio. Quil and Seth stood, waiting for Claire, who I found out was Seth's cousin, looking hysterically out of place. They were at least two heads taller than everyone else in the room. I tried my hardest not to laugh. Claire was one of the last girls out of the studio, and Ava, who looked like she had been trampled by a herd of wild elephants, was rushing out behind her.

"Quiw, that was so fun," Little Claire ran up to Quil and he hoisted her up into his arms. I couldn't help but smile. I loved kids. Ava looked like she was about to be sick while Seth continued staring at me.

"See you next week, Claire," I waved to her as Quil carried her out of the studio. She smiled and they both waved good-bye at me. Seth was out the last one out of the door. He looked back at me and smiled widely. His grin was so huge and contagious that I had to smile, too.

The moment he walked out the door, Ava turned to me and started her interrogation. "Okay, what was that all about?"

"What was what all about?" I tried to act like I didn't know what she was talking about. The less Ava knew about this, the easier it would be. Don't get me wrong, I do love Ava. She is my best friend, but she was too interested in finding me a boyfriend. I wasn't very happy about that.

"Don't you play dumb with me, Caroline Aurora Jones. You know what I am talking about," She put her hands on her hips and gave me the attitude she was known for. "What was going on between you and that hottie? That look he gave you…it was like you were water and he had been in the desert without any for years."

I didn't say anything. I just looked at her and raised my eyebrow.

"What?" Ava said. "Okay, maybe that wasn't the best analogy, but it was true. There was some serious chemistry going on between you two. You can't deny it."

"Whatever," I rolled my eyes. I probably wouldn't ever see him again. There was no reason to get my hopes up over something that wasn't going to happen. Besides, Seth had some weird kind of staring problem.

"So…what's his name?"

I laughed. Ava had a rather one track mind when it came to boys. "It's time to just go home."

"Mom, I'm home," I announced as I let myself into my house. I wasn't sure if my mom was home from work yet.

"Hey, Squirt," A voice I hadn't been expecting to hear said.

"Ethan! I thought you weren't coming home for another two weeks," I jumped into my older brother's arms. Ethan was a freshman, now a sophomore, at the University of Washington in Seattle. We had always been close as kids. Ever since my dad had walked out on us when I was six, Ethan had always been there for me. It had been really hard on my mom and me to live without him the past year.

"Well, I decided not to go to Florida with Katie. I figured it was time to come home," Katie was Ethan's girlfriend he had been dating for the past two years. Her family owned a beach house down in the Gulf of Mexico and Ethan had been planning on staying with them after his school got out, but that was Ethan. He was always sacrificing what he wanted to do for what he thought was right. Even though we didn't always get along, he really was a great brother.

"You didn't have to do that," I hit him playfully on the shoulder. "Mom and I can take care of ourselves just fine, thank you very much."

"It's no problem, really," Ethan smiled. "Besides, I was ready to see my two favorite girls: Mom and Ethel."

I smacked him again. Ethel was our old cat that Mom had since before I was born. She was so fat and old se could barely walk around anymore. Most of the time, she just sat on the couch staring at me with her beady little eyes. She didn't like me very much.

"Okay, so maybe I missed you a little bit, too," He admitted.

"Caroline, I'm home," My mom called out as she entered the back door. She was still dressed in her work clothes, scrubs. My mom, Phoebe Jones, was a dental assistant.

"Mom, look who is home," I smiled and Ethan went and hugged her. He had always been a Momma's Boy.

"Ethan," She hugged him back happily, her dark brown hair flowing off her petite shoulders. I had been told numerous times that I looked like my mom. We both had the same dark hair, brown eyes, and fair skin. Our facial features and build were pretty similar, too. However, my brother looked like my father, a man I hadn't seen in ten years. I could barely remember him. From pictures I had snagged from my mom's old wedding album, I could tell that they both had the same crystal blue eyes.

I could barely remember a time when it hadn't been Ethan, Mom, and me. When Ethan and I were kids, she used to call us the three musketeers; we always did everything together. Our lives weren't perfect. For a long time, it had been hard on us, living on one income. We had never gone without anything we needed, but never had much to spare. Now, things had leveled out. My life was exactly as I wanted it to be. I wouldn't change a thing.

As I sat in my living room catching up with my brother, I could not stop thinking about Seth. It was strange that I couldn't get him off my mind. I had only met him once and talked to him for less than an hour. Why was I still thinking about him?

"Are you alright, Sweetheart?" My mom asked. She knew me better than anyone, even Ava. I could always tell her anything, which wasn't the case with Ava. "You look a little out of it."

"I'm fine," I smiled, shoving Seth into small corner in the back of my mind.

Well, there's chapter one. Depending on the reaction to the story (if there are a lot of reviews I will update quicker), expect another chapter within in the next week or two.

Thanks so much for reading, now please, please, please, review for me. It means a lot.