"Guys, we don't have that much time to get this down. Let's start again. Five, six, seven, eight." Esme snapped her fingers to the beat, watching as twelve young adults shimmied their shoulders and twitched their hips. She frowned and waved her hands. "Hold it. Listen to the music, everyone. Your movements need to be sharp."

As Esme clapped her hands to accentuate the rhythm, Bella held back an inward groan. Her back was sweaty, her muscles were tired, and she had the great misfortune of having incurred Lauren's wrath. I didn't trip over her on purpose. Thankfully, she wasn't the only one struggling with the routine; Mike also seemed to be having trouble memorizing the choreography.

Frustrated, Esme grabbed her water bottle and pulled a long swig. "Okay, you guys are on your own for the rest of the day. Alice, please work with anyone still having trouble."

The pixie threw up her hand in a perky salute before dragging Bella and Michael to the far corner of the dance studio. "The two of you need to relax," she urged. "Both of you are moving like—"

"—like they have brooms up their bums?" Edward interrupted. In response to her glare, he shrugged. "We've been at this for hours now thanks to these two. The sooner they get it, the sooner we can call it a day."

"Nobody's asking you to stick around," Mike snapped.

Ignoring the comment, Edward stepped behind Bella and placed both hands on her hips. Her body tensed, and she was about to pry his fingers loose when he started shifting her back and forth to the beat. Shocked by his audacity, she let him guide her to the lyrics, her body finally falling into the rhythm. One of his hands drifted up to grip her shoulder, pushing them opposite the direction of her hips so that her torso was pulled taut. Her body gradually got used to the shifting motion. Several measures later, both of Edward's hands slipped away, and she found herself moving on her own, feeling the tension in her body match the punctuated pulse of the song. Seconds passed before she realized that Alice was now grinning at her.

"Edward, you're a genius!" she squealed.

But the boy was already gone. As Alice tried to walk Mike through similar steps, Bella's eyes wandered the studio in search of her copper-headed instructor. "Here, penny penny penny," she mumbled as she looked around in vain. For a second, she thought she saw him grinning at her through the door, but when she did a double take, the hallway was empty.

Two hours later, Alice declared that they were ready and dragged them out of the mirrored room. "I feel like I've been ducked in a stinky vat of sweat," she complained, tripping nimbly up the stairs. Bella waited in the hallway while her short-haired friend showered.

She leaned over the banister, lost in thought until a voice almost sent her tumbling over the thin, wooden rail.

"Ma always taught me to be polite to women, but someone should probably tell you that you smell like wet dog." Jasper grinned at her, his hair still damp and his glasses slightly foggy.

Mortified, Bella's cheeks started to burn, and she turned to run downstairs only to trip over one of her shoelaces. The Texan burst into laughter as she scrabbled back into a standing position. "I'm just kidding, Bella. Anyway, what'd you do to Edward? He's been all dark and broody since he came upstairs."

Bella blinked owlishly at him. "He has?" When Jasper nodded, she furrowed her brow and focused her eyes on the floor. "I don't think I did anything. He helped me a little with the routine, is all."

"Don't worry about it," Emmett's voice boomed. "The boy's just PMS-ing. Again." He slapped an arm around Bella's shoulders, only to recoil quickly. "Ew, Bells. I just took a shower."

"I'm still waiting for Alice to free up ours," she pointed out. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure nobody here really knows what goes through Edward's head. He's a ticking time bomb."

Emmett leaned forward and pulled both of them closer so that he could whisper conspiratorially. "I think there's a girl involved. He keeps mumbling 'you bitch' in his sleep." He looked at Bella expectantly, but instead of curiosity, her eyes were alit with something close to fear as she stared over his shoulder.

Edward's face was a mask of cold fury as his shoulders blocked off the opening to the boys' dorm. "Actually, McCarty, I was talking about your mom. Turns out she likes it dirty."

Both Mike and Jasper latched onto Emmett's arms, but he just dragged them behind him as he stalked over to where Edward was standing. He snarled at the taller boy. Suddenly, Edward was flung backwards as Jacob stepped between the would-be combatants.

Squaring his shoulders, the actor hooked his arms around Emmett's waist and helped the other two drag him downstairs. Bella tentatively stuck her head into the boys' dorm to find Edward staring moodily into space, his back propped against a bed and his clothes thoroughly rumpled. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," he muttered testily. "None of your business, anyway." He opened his mouth to say more when Alice's voice drifted down the hallway, announcing that the shower was free. He snapped his jaw shut and watched Bella's eyes as she slipped away.

Stupid stupid stupid, Bella chanted to herself as she coated her hair with strawberry-scented shampoo. As she closed her eyes to rinse away the suds, all she could see were Edward's intense gaze, her chest constricting strangely as she recalled the connection of green with brown, a natural meeting of flora with nourishing earth. She shook her head and dunked it under the streaming water for good measure. Nothing good could come from fixating on the emotional nightmare known as Edward Masen.

For the rest of the shower, she forced her mind to focus on pleasanter things. I should give Nessie a call, she thought to herself. She'll have a coronary when I tell her I'm living with Jacob Black. Chuckling at her cousin's teenage obsession, she wrapped herself in a towel and stepped into the dorm.

The room was empty, save for Rosalie. The model put down her magazine and rose from her bed as Bella walked past her and started rummaging in her suitcase for clean clothes. "Dinner's in ten minutes," the statuesque blonde announced blandly. She sashayed out of the room, leaving Bella to stare at her retreating back in confusion.

"Was Rosalie Hale just…nice?"

ooOoo

"So what do you think of the competition so far?"

Bella looked up from chamomile tea and cocked her head in confusion. "The people or the contest itself?"

Alice sipped from her own mug and smiled. "Both, Bellsie."

"The people are more or less what I expected. and this show is liable to kick my butt, which is still sore, by the way. Bella Swan and physical exertion don't mix."

"Whine whine whine," her friend pooh-poohed her. "You'll be in fantastic shape by the time this is all over. Anyway, not everyone here's a snob."

"Like Jasper?"

Alice grinned. "Jazz is the anti-snob. He's nice and smart and—"

"—dorky?" The smaller girl threw a cookie in her direction, and Bella ducked, but not quickly enough. Instead, the baked good smacked into her forehead before falling in her lap. She picked it up and took an impudent bite.

"Oops." Alice burst into giggles. "That's what you get for making fun of my Jazzy."

"Your Jazzy?" One of Bella's eyebrows lifted into a pointed arch as her friend nodded emphatically. "Does he know that?"

"Not yet, but he will."

The front door opened, and Jacob joined them on the porch. "Hey Bells, Ness wants to talk to you. She's mad that you didn't tell her about me, by the way." He gave her a puppy-dog look. "Am I really that embarrassing?"

"Why are you answering her phone?" asked Alice, while Bella snatched the rectangular object from his hand.

He grinned. "The caller ID was my face. I had to do it."

Alice giggled while Bella glared at them both. "Hey Ness."

"Was that really Jacob Black? The Jacob Black?"

Bella sighed. "Yes, that was really Jacob Black."

There was a high-pitched squeal, and she had to hold the phone away from her ear. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? I'm totally joining you in LA. What's he like? Is he as nice as he is in the interviews? I bet all the girls are drooling all over him. Wait, is that why you haven't called?"

"Well I was going to tell you, but they've had us practicing non-stop. Yes, he's been very nice, and no, he's not my type. This is a competition, Ness; we're not here to hook up."

"So he's free then. Can I visit? Please?"

"Renesmee Carlie Dwyer, you stay put or I'm telling your mom."

"But I'm eighteen already," Nessie whined. "I just want to meet him. It'll only be a weekend."

"I don't care how old you are," Bella said firmly. "You have school right now, and you can't just drop everything to chase after a boy. Here, talk to Jacob."

Holding her hand over the speaker, she turned to him in panic. "She wants to visit. I can't tell her that we're in Detroit, and I'm not sure I can stop her from trying to go to LA."

"I'll talk her out of it," Jacob promised. Taking the phone from her hand, he brought it to the side of his head and stepped back into the house. "Hey Ness, what's this I hear about a visit?"

Bella sank into a warped wooden chair and rubbed at her face. "Little Loch Ness is going to be the death of me."

"Well, hopefully Jacob can talk her out of it. I'm guessing she's one of his fan girls?"

"Not the psycho kind; last I checked she doesn't own any 'Team Jared' bedding." Bella laughed dispiritedly. "The weird thing is, she didn't even like him until she saw a clip from one of his interviews. Before that, I think she called him a 'pretty boy who's all abs and no spine'. That was after we watched Harvest Moon together, by the way."

Alice clapped her hands together and started bouncing up and down in her seat. "You totally need to tell him that. I want to see how he reacts when you tell him he's pretty."

Bella snickered into her mug and drained the rest of her tea. "I think Nessie really would kill me if I did that. Are you done with your drink?"

Holding both empty cups in one hand, Bella used the other to open the door. She stepped into the kitchen, where Jessica was mixing something in a large, metal bowl. She was humming to herself as she swayed back and forth, dancing her way around the kitchen. The blonde jumped when she saw Bella standing five feet away.

"Sorry," the brunette apologized. "What are you making?"

Jessica's expression slowly morphed from shocked to determined. "None of your business," she snipped. "Shouldn't you be practicing or something?"

Bella rolled her eyes and placed the mugs in the dishwasher. "Don't worry, I'll be out of your hair in a minute." She kicked the door upward and pushed it closed with her hip. "If Alice comes looking for me, tell her I'm in the studio." She shook her head at Jessica's hostile behavior and stalked down the hall.

Edward was already in the studio when she arrived. A single bulb illuminated the musty room. The boy's skin glowed ethereally as he shifted about in the back corner, working his way through the entire dance routine over and over. Behind him, Mike followed Edward's movements as best he could, a pale shadow mimicking the demon before him. Every so often, Edward's lips would move, and Mike would nod.

He's helping him, Bella realized. Well I'll be…

She took the opposite corner and focused on the mirror as she forced her aching body through the steps several times, wincing as her hip bumped into the barre. She scooted closer to where the boys were working and started over. "Baby you're a firework," she quietly sang. "Come and let your colors burst." Her limbs reluctantly warmed and started to match her movements to the words. Several measures later, two more voices joined her, forming a thin chorus as three weary souls worked away in the dark.

A/N: Yay, an update! I was at a wedding all weekend, and the job hunt is still ongoing. TSP = escape. Hope you guys enjoyed the update.