A/N: The Italicized part of this chapter is Bella's ringtone.

Disclaimer: SM owns major character names and some character profiles

Bella POV

6am, 2 hours till the gym doors open, 4 hours until tryouts... damn these stupid butterflies. I couldn't help but think of all the horrible things that could happen. What if I sucked compared to all the other girls? What if they hated me if I were better than them?..."Think positive Bella", I told myself. I pushed all the negative thoughts out of my head and decided to get ready. I put my black basketball shorts that hung 2 inches above my knee, with a white tank top and my black Nike shoes. I got ready as slow as possible to pass the time. I brushed my hair over and over. My hair was getting long, already at my waist "I desperately need a hair cut" I thought. My hair and my eyes were my favorite features. I had thick straight black hair that had a layered style to it and my eyes were as blue as the deepest part of the ocean. I looked exactly like my mother except she was 5'10" while I was a measly 5'2"; I took after my grandma, I didn't complain.

I was sitting on my bed staring blankly at the ceiling trying to reassure myself that I was ready, I mean I should be given my own brother, the best coach possible, was my coach. He plays point guard for the UCLA Bruins. He is amazing...call me bias, but there is no one that could play as good as my brother. He is so elegant when he plays...In fact he was the reason I wanted to be a ballerina when I was little; I wanted to be as graceful as him. I gave up that dream after constantly moving to a new place almost every year, basketball was the only constant thing in my life other than my family. Last year was the worst year of my life. My brother left for college and he moved all the way across the country to Cali. I always felt so alone; I had 2 good friends...I wouldn't call them my best friends, but they filled the empty hole. I dated a boy James, ugh, how I loathe the scum bag. He was so cute with light brown hair and deep brown eyes. He was so sweet when we started going out, then things slowly changed. But those memories will stay locked away forever, I hope.

I checked my phone for the time, "6:45... hmm, that's a 15 minute walk to the quad then an hour to kill." I pulled on the UCLA sweatshirt Josiah got me, grabbed my I-pod, threw a face towel and 2 water bottles, my phone and a granola bar in my bag then wrote Alice a quick note and walked out. The halls had that quiet eerie silence to them, so I turned the volume on high to drown out the silence. I blasted "Admit it!" By Say Anything; they always knew how to lift my spirits with their witty sexual banter. I noticed some guys walking towards the quad and I figured they were football players given their huge muscular bodies. I spotted a place with fruits and muffins; I quickly walked over and made me a full plate of strawberries, bananas, watermelon and grapes, with a poppy seed muffin and a bottle of water. I walked up to pay and a cute old lady smiled at me warmly. "Good morning sweetie" she said, I smiled and politely said "hello". "It's nice to see someone still eats there fruits these days." I laughed and said "I can't resist them, they're my weakness." "It'll be $6.75, dear" I handed her my money and walked to find an empty table.

As I was about to sit down, I heard a familiar loud voice say "BELLA!" It nearly scared the shit out of me. I turned around and saw Emmett with a big goofy smile sitting with another boy. He was cute but average looking, with tanned skin, long brown hair and dark brown eyes. I walked over and sat across from them. "Hey Em, why are you up so early?" "Football practice starts at 8" "oh that sucks..." he shrugged "Not really. When we finish our practice, everyone else starts theirs so we can lounge around most of the day. That's how I like it" he explained while smiling widely. The cute guy hit him in the ribs then realization dawned on Emmett's face. "Oh shit, sorry Jake...Bella this is Jake," We shook hands and said "nice to meet you." "So Jake, what's your sport here?" He looked up at me, surprised that I spoke to him. He started to stutter as I ate my fruit plate. "Uh...yeah, line backer …I mean I play football." "Cool" I said, "what do you play" he asked. Finally getting a more confident voice, I saw Emmett smirk, but he continued to stuff his face with his breakfast burrito. "Point Guard, basketball" I answered, and before he could give me the normal shocked reaction, I claimed "I know...I'm a midget and I'm playing basketball, I get it." Emmett just laughed and we all started laughing. "I'm gonna guess you get the same reaction every time?" he said, "oh yes and it gets annoying." We finished eating in less than half an hour and we all headed out together since the gym was near the football field. I learned that Jacob was from Forks Washington, he liked fixing up cars, surfing, and he had a girlfriend, Leah back home. I was glad about that it was one less guy to flirt with me.

We parted ways; I headed to the gym and saw the janitor unlock the doors. I pretty much skipped my way to the gym; I was so excited. I knew once my feet touched the court, all my insecurities would vanish. The gym was enormous, I never felt so small in my entire life. There were two regulation sized courts and 2 carts full of balls placed in the middle of the courts. I decided to take a couple laps around the gym; my body has been so tense with nerves but after 15 minutes, I felt my body relax. I did a couple of stretches and I felt ready. I suck at lay-ups so I decided to practice that first. After what felt like 50 tries, I slowly started to get the hang of it. I decide free throws were next so I moved the cart of balls next to me and started shooting. I made 16 out of 18 shots; Josi would be proud. My arms were burning like hell so I collected all the balls and walked over to my bag for a much needed water break. I checked the time and it was already 9:00am... "damn time flies." I took my sweatshirt off and laid on the cold concrete floor, wiping my face with my towel. I needed to rest before the coach got here and tortured me with conditionings and drills. I heard a whistle blow and I shot up quickly to see a middle aged woman with dirty blonde boy cut hair and blue eyes, walking towards me. I was thinking maybe this is the coach so I put all my stuff in my bag as she approached.

"Good Morning, I'm Coach Conner" she said as she reached out to shake my hand. "Bella Swan." "The new transfer right?" "Yeah, I'm sorry about being here early...I was a bit antsy and couldn't sleep so I decided to release my tension. She smiled, "its fine, Swan. I wish I had more eager players like you. You're trying out right?" "Of course" I blurted out. "Good."

I've been watching you for the past half hour and I like what I see so far; I smiled. She walked away saying she had to take care of something's so I just messed around on the court. Soon enough I heard the sounds of footsteps and loud voices. I put the ball back and walked over to my bag, wiped away the sweat and had a seat on the bleachers. Boys and girls walked in and started gathering on the bleachers. Some girls were rolling their eyes at me; boys were whispering "damn, she's hot." This shit never gets old.

I was in a daze, blocking out all my haters and admirers when all of a sudden I felt an annoying hand touching my shoulder. I looked up and saw a wide eyed eager boy. "Hey your Isabella right?" "Call me Bella, please." I replied. "I'm Tyler, it's nice to finally have a pretty girl at this school" I replied in a bored tone " mmm." "Okay gorgeous, do you mind if I sit by you?" I looked away and rolled my eyes, "whatever, it's a free country." "So...we should go out on a date this Saturday. There's this new steakhouse I've been dying to try out." "Uh yeah, I don't think so. Thanks though..." I tried to sound polite. A few girls were laughing and I chose to ignore them. "Are you sure? It's really an honor for any girl to be seen with me. This should be a privilege for you." He turned to me only to be met with my slightly annoyed face. "I'm sure man." He stomped away slightly peeved and I couldn't help but laugh a little. "That was so funny", a shy looking girl said, "Thanks, he was kinda annoying." "I'm Angela Weber." "I'm Bella Swan." "Are you nervous about tryouts today?" she asked. "Extremely nervous. I've never played on a real team before." "Don't worry about it. I overheard coach Conner telling the boy's coach about you...saying we might have a chance this season because of you." I chuckled, "I'm sure she was over exaggerating..." "Or maybe you're just too humble to admit you are that good." she said with a sweet smile. Angela was tall; maybe 5'10". She comes from a family of players so I think we'd get along just fine.

I thankfully survived the two weeks of torturous practices. We had only 12 girls tryout and only about 7 of them were actually moderately good. It was Saturday and the school was filling up fast with more students. Those stupid butterflies in my stomach kept bugging me. We didn't have practice today, thank god; Josiah would be here in an hour to get me as I desperately needed time to relax. "Hey there Spaz." I chuckled "Hey pixie." "So what are you doing today" she asked. "I'm going to the beach with my brother for our surf session." "Oh how fun! I haven't been to the beach in so long." "Do you guys want to come with us? my brothers got a big truck; we can all fit." "Yes! That would be absolutely fabulous. I'll call the gang." "Okay, this is gonna be fun." A few minutes later we were all crowded in my dorm room when my phone rang and "Naughty Girl" by Beyonce played :

"Tonight I'll be your naughty girl

I'm calling all the girls

We're gonna turn this party out

I know you want my body."

"Josi! Where are you?" "I'm outside your building. Get down here fast! That blonde chick is fricken giving me the creeps." I laughed into the phone hysterically clutching my sides.

"Belly bean" he whined, "get down here now or I'm leaving you here." "Okay, okay. we'll be there in a sec." "What was that all about?" Alice asked. "My brother is being harassed by the dim witted blonde girl we met here on the first day. Come on guys, I need to rescue him." We all rushed down stairs and I saw through the glass door a very trashy looking girl pushing her chest against my brother. Anger ran through me just then and I rushed out and yelled "get your skanky hands off of him." "Please, he wants this. No boy can resist these babies." she said as she lifted her over exposed boobs in the air. "If you didn't get the hint the first time you met him, let me refresh your memory. He's NOT fucking interested you. Got it? Like anyone could be interested in a whore like you". "Takes one to know one" she replied harshly, "you'll regret this you know. I'm Lauren Mallory and I will make your life a living hell!" "Ooh I'm scared" I shook in mock fright as she stomped away in defeat. Josiah smiled with relief and picked me up in a massive hug. "Belly bean you need to stop being so mean." he said as he looked me in the eyes with his brotherly look of concern. "She was rude first...she deserved it." Just then, Jasper cleared his throat to get our attention. "Oh silly me." Josiah put me back on the ground and Jasper stepped out first with a look of shock plastered on his face.

"You're Josiah Ching. THE Josiah Ching." exclaimed Jasper as he shook my brothers hand with fierce excitement. "I'm Jasper Hale. I never miss any of your games. You're an amazing player! The first freshmen at UCLA to play starting point guard with an average of 35.1 points and 15.1 rebounds per game. Last year's MVP at the NCAA championship games, a shoe in for captain this year. You could go straight to playin pro if you wanted to. Oh my god, I can't believe I'm shaking your hand." We all started laughing as Jazz still stared at my brother in awe. Alice danced gracefully over to Jazz, "Jazzy let go of Josi's hand" she giggled. Josiah smiled back at her kindly "hey little pixie. You taking good care of belly bean?" she giggled as I hit him in the ribs. "Yes of course I am. We love her." "Care to introduce the rest of us belly bean?" Emmett cooed; Josiah laughed and I glared at him evilly. "Stop making fun of the girl! Hi, I'm Rose and that doof is my boyfriend Emmett." They shook hands "and this flustered boy in front of you is Jasper." "Nice to meet you guys. Wait, you guys are siblings?" jasper said. "Mmmhmm. We have the same parents. He has my mom's last name and I took my dad's." "You don't look anything alike." "Well I look a lot like my mom and he's a spitting image of our dad." "Let's go guys. I wanna learn how to surf" Emmett said, acting like a whiny 5 year old boy.

We continued to walk towards the parking lot while Jasper grilled my brother with insane questions. I personally thought it was funny, Josi didn't seem to mind. I just loved being near my brother; He piggy backed me all the way to the car as I got evil glares from boys and girls. My eye caught the green eyed god's eyes. He looked pissed when he saw me and my brother and I knew what he thought...but why should I bother telling him the truth it's none of his business? We drove out to the beach and the sets were amazing. I rushed out to the water with my short board; The rest of the guys joined me while the girls tanned. Emmett tried standing up, but watching the fear on his face was the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time. We had fun. I taught jazz to surf; He was a pretty quick learner. We spent hours surfing, swimming, playing football and grabbed lunch at the shrimp shack. I got stared at a lot when I walked around in my navy blue string bikini. My brother just scared everyone away. It was funny to watch Em and Jazz do the same to all the guys checking out their girls; they loved the attention while I despised it. It was getting late and Josiah had an early practice the next morning, so we headed back to the Academy. We were all beat when we got back to our dorms. I showered and relaxed and thought back on the day. My family and friends got along perfectly and I was really starting to feel happier here; I loved it. I finally had best friends. "Goodnight, Belly bean" Alice giggled. I flew a pillow at her and said "Night Pixie."