BPOV

"Omg, I cannot believe you just made me do that!" Alice all but shrieked in my ear once we had left the company of the actual guys.

"Do what?" I asked innocently.

"You know exactly what! I signed up for training because of you! No make-up, no making dresses! Practising how to fight! What if an actual war comes around? What if someone finds out, that we're CHICKS!" She started hyperventilating, scaring the hell out of me. But she was right; I was just so excited to actually win something and I just felt so right and confident in that moment.

"Alice, I'm -" I started to apologise, but I was cut off by the HUGE oaf that Alice somehow beat.

"Hey, pipsqueak." He growled. I took a physical step back. If there was just one thing that could set Alice off more than anything, it was any sort of name to make fun of her height.

I just hope she remembers she is still in her fighting gear… I thought.

"Excuse me?" She asked, eyes narrowing to thin slits as she sized him up… for the second time today.

He walked right up to her, and he was towering over her, but she didn't even flinch. "How did you do that!" He exclaimed with a huge grin on his face. Both of our jaws dropped.

"Pardon?" I asked, too shocked to remind myself to use a deeper voice.

"What this scrawny guy pulled! I was absolutely awesome, I haven't been brought down like that for ages, let alone met someone who could stand more than a few minutes with me," He gave another 500 watt smile in Alice's direction, and I swear she almost melted right then and there. "My name's Emmett by the way." He held out his hand to her… and half a minute rolled by. He raised an eyebrow at her.

She blinked a couple of times, seemingly regaining her composer. "Uh… Thanks?" It came out more like a question, but Emmett simply laughed.

"You're welcome bro," and quickly grabbed her hand to shake it. "So, I didn't get your name." He said bluntly.

"Oh its, Al-" she tapered off.

"Al? Is that it? Well what a fitting short name for one so short," He mocked.

"Hey," She said, "Ever think it was short for something else!"

"Such as…"

"Albert."

"Albert?" He broke out into hysterical laughter, "No wonder you like your name shortened to Al!" He continued laughing, and when I gave out a small giggle he stopped and turned to me.

Oh crap, oh crap, OH CRAP!

"Hey, well done to you too man, well played today. Haven't seen you before where, have you been hiding?" he enquired.

"I only just came into the area recently," I said, I coughed quickly to attempt to lower my voice a bit more. "I'm Brian by the way." I held out my hand in what I thought would be a simple hand-shake. Little did I know it was going to be a strength match, I literally lost all feeling in my hand. Ouch! Since when did guys squeeze that hard?

"For someone who won the sparring contest, I would have thought you'd have a stronger handshake than a sheila," He joked.

Crap, does he know already? Of course Alice was right when isn't she! They're going to find within the week of us even getting there, how do I get off the list….

He (thankfully) thought my mortified silence was about something else, "Hey sorry mate, I was just kidding. I'm sure by the time they are finished with us you'll have a killer handshake."

I smiled weakly at him, "Thanks."

"Hey, no problem. It was great meeting you two. Hopefully I'll see your scrawny butts out on the field in 4 weeks," he left with a friendly smile and a wave.

It took every single power in me not to either burst out laughing at him, crying because of my hand, or screaming at the sheer stupidity of it all… preferably not all at once of course. "Alice," I hissed.

She turned around like a zombie, like she still couldn't believe what just happened. "Bella, I thought he was going to start a fight… are men always this unpredictable?"

"Alice, you're the one that has actually been almost married and the hit with the men so how would I know?" She rolled her eyes at me, "Anyway, we need to find the people we signed up with, and get off that list!" I whisper screamed the last part, she nodded frantically and we ran back towards the desk. As we were I realised how little I had actually thought this through, what would I say to Ben? To anyone? I couldn't just up and leave them…

It didn't take too long to find the table again, even with all the people cramming the streets. Only thing was, the sign up papers weren't there and neither was anyone who looked like they belonged to the army. Standing on tippy toes, I caught a quick glimpse of some messy copper hair and immediately thought of the hot captain when I signed up. "Alice, over here!" I shouted before running towards his general direction. I wasn't too worried about her; she was quite fast at running and caught up with me quickly. It looked like he had put his cap on, and in my frantic searching I managed to crash into someone tall, hard and lean. When I opened my eyes, I was met with brilliant green eyes, smooth skin and high cheekbones. Well, I found him at least I went to get off him, but couldn't, his arms were around my waist. Not that you could tell of course, this heavy armour didn't exactly do anything to create the perfect figure for women. I tried again, but this time a little harder, and he finally stopped staring at me and let go his death grip. I scrambled up as quickly as possible, Alice was standing there open mouthed. "Shut your mouth Al!" she did as I said.

The captain stood up and turned to me, brushing off his uniform. "And you are?" he asked coldly.

Alice and I quickly shared a look before I opened my mouth, "You see, we were just seeing how we would go today, and signed up in the spur of the moment, we didn't actually mean to-"

"Stop." I did, the commanding tone was there, "Are you the one that won today?"

"Y-yes sir"

"Good, we need fighters like you, and even if I could there isn't any way to get off the list. Either you some with us, or another family member does, it's up to you." He must have seen the panic cross my face, as his face softened. "I'm sorry, here, let me introduce myself. I'm Captain Edward Anthony Masen."

I tried to push back the lump in my throat, and smiled a little. "I'm Brian Swan, and this is my mate Albert Brandson. But you can just call us B and Al sir." Gosh he made me nervous, it looked like he was trying to read my eyes with that intense stare of his.

"Sir." Alice said smartly, with a salute. I looked at her like she was insane.

Edward laughed at her, "Well good to see at least someone is eager." He started to turn away before making eye contact again, and of all things I blushed. What. The. Hell. I haven't known him for very long, he was the Captain of the army training I was about to join, I was dressed like a MAN and I blushed? "Is there anything to do in this city that is noteworthy?"

I nodded, still fairly mortified. "Because of the carnival, fair thing there will be a dance later on tonight. It's big for the locals, and us who come from the outer skirts of town."

"Tell me, is a lady called," I swear he just shuddered, "Lauren going to be there?"

Before I could even attempt to answer Alice butted in, "Why I sure hope so, she sure can liven up a party. If you know what I mean!" She finished it off with a wink, completely horrifying me. The Captain just gave the both of us a disgusted look and stalked off.

But I didn't even say anything…

I turned to Alice, and just stared at her. We locked eyes and burst out laughing. "Can't breathe, can't breathe," she wheezed out.

"I can't believe you just said that, I thought the next line out of your mouth was going to be 'she is some good looking Shelia' and I think I would have had to hit you myself!" I laughed.

"What I can't believe is that you knocked him flat onto his back! Did you see the way he was staring at you, you either look incredibly hot or undeniably ugly for him to look at you that much."

"Hey!" I protested through spurts of laughter, "It's obviously the good looks."

Alice started walking back home, still clutching her stomach a little from laughing. I sighed and started following, "Wait up Alice, are we going to go to the dance tonight or staying in for the night?" She turned on her heel and gave a pointed look, "Fine we'll go," I sighed.

"There wasn't a choice for you Bella, it's cute you thought there was though," she smirked.

We walked the rest of the way home in silence; I automatically knew that I would go to hers, simply so she could dress me up for tonight. The bad thing for me is when my mouth isn't moving, the imaginary one in my head yabbers away. So what is it exactly that I am going to do now? If I tell Ben what I am going to do he'll be heartbroken… If I don't tell him he'll be sick with worry about my safety. I could just never dress like this again… But then they would assume it was Ben who signed up and take him… I couldn't live with myself if I ever did that to him, He is already hurt and I wouldn't want to further that pain. No it's best if I left him to settle down with Angela, she's already like a sister to me anyway, so hopefully she will become one! I got myself into this mess and I can get myself out, anyway training doesn't start for another 4 weeks, so at least I have Christmas with him. By the time I had decided to go and see how things went, we were at Alice's house.

It was much more… grand I guess, than mine. While mine was nice and simple, Alice had a Victorian style house, with gorgeous arch ways and staircases. I always felt like I was going to dirty the place up, as her mother Mary cleaned the house like the Prime Minister would drop by any second. I walked through the huge doorway and followed Alice to her room, where she promptly pushed me into their bathroom for a shower. That was one amenity that I wish I had at our place, mostly I wasn't able to ask the house was semi unsteady in its foundations and none of the builders wanted to risk adding things under the floorboards. I didn't mind, it meant the house was just like it was when our parents had it.

After the shower I was shoved in front of a mirror with what seemed like hundreds of light bulbs around it, "Seriously Alice, are you planning to run away with a burlesque group or something? When would you need all these lights around a single mirror?" She responded with a slap on my head as she had placed a number of different combs in her mouth to hold them; I just smiled sweetly in response.

After hours of torture, no not really Alice worked as fast as she talked so we were done in about half an hour, I was finally ready. "You're dress is in the cupboard over there Bella," She pointed to the one with the largest doors. I opened to find it full of dresses, none of which were specifically marked out for me.

"Alice which one is for me?"

She shrugged, "Pick one."

"Alice, I can't do that! These are all yours, besides I probably wouldn't fit into any of them." To which she just rolled her eyes at me, with a sigh I turned back to the masses of clothes. I slowly waded in, not wanting to rip anything accidently, after five minutes I found a dress with an A line skirt and matching little jacket to go with it. As I pulled it out I noticed that it was strapless, and Alice had the exact same dress… in four colours. "Alice what's with the double ups?" I yelled out, I wasn't sure she heard me. I grabbed the Russet coloured one and made the neck breaking journey out of Narnia. I stumbled out of the never ending wardrobe holding onto the dress like it would save me, only to find Alice dressed and ready. "Hey, not fair! Why do you take less time?"

"Because I do this everyday, so when I need to get ready there isn't as much to do" she grinned, "There are some people who put more thought into getting ready than you Bella."

I sighed again, it seems like that's all I do nowadays, as I can't seem to win. "Before you run off and leave me, can I at least get dressed?" she nodded. She left the room for me, and I quickly slipped the dress on. I had just put the half jacket on when she burst through the door. "Alice! Heard of knocking before?"

She cocked her head, "Actually no, what is this extraordinary thing you call knocking?" She giggled, her eyes bright. "By the way, you look absolutely amazing; I love you in strong colours… especially red… goes really nicely with your darker hair…" She started staring at me, and to tell you the truth it was really unnerving me.

"Um Alice?" She shook her head abruptly, and let out a squeal, which made me squeal, which made Mary run up the stairs at full pelt screaming.

"I just had the best idea!" She screamed, just as Mary burst through the door.

"What's wrong? Is there a man up here?" She yelled, holding a piece of word over her shoulder.

"No Mum, no man. Just us girls." Alice winked at me, and I glared back.

"Oh… ok, well I need to finish cleaning so I will see you after the dance, and remember! NO boys, unless they are really handsome and well off and-"

"Yes thanks Mum, now goodbye!" Alice said quickly, and shut the door.

"Alice, Why on earth were you screaming for no reason?"

"Like I said, and idea… that is a secret. Oooohhhh!" she said, hands waving in front of her.

I just stared at her, "You're a crazy leprechaun, you know that right?"

"Well I did always think I looked good in green…"

"Alice, let's just go Okay?"

She smiled and linked arms with me, "Ready to go to the Ball?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Good, coz I really want to see if the Captain will actually turn up after our encounter this afternoon." I smiled with her, if he did show up he had nerves of steel.

The walk over to the centre of town was over quickly, but it wasn't a walk that I was looking forward to doing in the dark. The inner city was lighted but I was out of reach for those lights, but I had gotten Ben to install lights for the outside of our house so all should be good. "Bella, stop thinking and just enjoy the night, I'm sure we can find a young strapping man that isn't Mike to walk us home." As always Alice could read my mind, we were so attuned to each other.

"Just quickly, are you sure you want to try this training thing? I can do it by myself if you would prefer." She looked at me, shocked.

"Bella! We're in this together, and anyway I figured if we absolutely hate it we can just bail. But I think we are going to be absolutely fine, we are fit from all this walking, we can fight thanks to Ben, and better yet it will test my skills of fashion!" she smiled brightly.

I laughed, "Of course you would think of this experience in fashion terms," I said fondly.

"Well I need to get pay back on you somehow!"

EPOV

I heard light laughter approaching the door, a sweet almost bell like tinkling. The door opened to reveal the lady who won the pageant, and the brunette beauty I wanted to win. My lucky night, I might even find out her name… for some reason I was trying to prove to myself that I liked women. Ever since today's incidents with the two men trying to get out of the training, I haven't stopped thinking about the brown eyes of the slightly taller one. And that scared the Hell out of me. I've never had even the slightest stirrings while talking to any other man, but as soon as I saw him on top of me I became flustered, and spoke harshly to scold myself, and only made him scared. Which hurt me. Again, I have no idea what was happening.

I walked over to the barman to get a drink so it wouldn't seem like I was staring at the two ladies… which I was, but would never admit. While calmly scanning the room, my eyes landed on Jasper. I waved him over, wanting someone to hang with.

"Hey." He said.

"Evening." Nothing was said for a few minutes.

"Captain-" he started.

"Edward," I said warmly.

"Uh, yes… Edward, this may seem… out of turn, but did you see the two ladies that walked in just then?"

I nodded, better not be after the brunette I scowled/grinned internally, HA! Not gay!

"I'm afraid I may be developing feeling for the girl with black hair," he admitted shyly, thank god! Never seen him this quiet though… interesting… "I wanted your personal opinion," I nodded for him to continue talking, "Is it even possible for me to attempt a relationship, when we won't even be here in the next few weeks?"

I pondered the question. "My best advice would be to find out if she would even consider seeing you, " I said playfully, "Other than that, tell her you may not always be around, she may be ok with that."

He rolled his eyes, "Edward if my sister, Rosalie is anything to go by, I don't think she will be ok with it…" he stopped talking, looking at something behind me. It was the two girls.

"Hi, I'm Alice and this is Bella. Mind if we come and have a chat?"

Well I'll be blowed…

Yep, so it took me absolutely ever to update, but hey it's not a one-shot! Hope you like it, I'm getting back into the swing of writing so hopefully I'll write out something… soon xxoo

Disclaimer: I do not own twilight or mulan... which this is loosely based on