Edward POV

She did it on purpose. I was sure of that. My mother wasn't one to be grinning smugly but just now I saw her doing exactly that. I scowled in return but she didn't notice. Why in the world did she have to throw me together with Bella? I instantly regretted ever having complained about Rose. Now I had to dance with Bella. Isabella. Isabella Swan.

I had almost forgotten about this new revelation. This girl couldn't honestly be the daughter of Renee Swan. A flicker of hope rose inside of me. Maybe this was a good thing - after all, her mother had been quite the dancer in her time. Maybe Isabella had inherited some of her mother's talent and her feet. So far none of us had seen her dance, at least not ballet. Who knew what she was capable of? But then again, I had yet to see her move with the grace of a ballerina. So far, I had only seen her jerky, not at all elegant movements from her.

I sighed. The bit of hope I had felt was lost. My thoughts were interrupted when a loud booming "What?" sounded right beside me. I looked at Emmett, who wore a disbelieving expression on his face. I frowned in confusion. What had happened to him?

Jasper nudged me slightly and nodded his head in the direction of the girls. My eyes instantly fell on Bella. Bella was sitting there with her legs an arms crossed and an unfocused look on her face. What was she thinking about? I realized that the reason for Emmett's outburst could not have been her.

"You can't pair me up with him," Rose complained. "He's an idiot!"

So that's what happened. Rose sat right beside Bella and wore the same expression on her face as Emmett.

"Ms. Hale, I do not tolerate this kind of rudeness in my classroom," Madam Cope warned. Rose only glared at her in return. "You and Mr. McCarthy will have to live with the fact that you are now partners. We are not changing the new pairings."

Rose opened her mouth to protest, as did Emmett, but one warning look from my mother was enough for the both of them to close their mouths again. At least I was not the only one who was unhappy with his new partner. Emmett ranted something, but it was too quiet for me to hear. As far as I could tell, he was cursing Rose and when I glanced at her, it seemed like she was throwing profanities at him as well. As if that was going to work out better than Rose and I together. I really had to start doubting my mother's judgment. Maybe she's getting too old...

While Rose and Bella were sticking their heads together with scowls on their face, murmuring to each other, and I suddenly had Emmett right by my ear, telling me how much this year was going to suck, Jasper and Alice were grinning like fools. Why those two weren't together yet was mystery to me. I knew that Alice has been crushing on him ever since the day the sun started rising. The remaining pairs were announced and there were no more complaints. Irina did pull a grimace when she got paired with Laurent though. Madam Cope gave us a little speech then about harmonizing and getting to know your partner to be able to communicate and trust each other.

After that, the lesson was over and we were all dismissed. I didn't even know why I noticed, but Bella was out of the room before the rest of the class had even risen from their seats. Alice started to go after her but was stopped by my mother, who went after Bella herself. I wondered what that was all about.

"Come on, Eddie," Emmett said and nudged me slightly with his foot. He glared at Rose, who didn't even pay attention to him anymore. She was furiously typing on her phone as she walked out. We were the only ones in the classroom who weren't busy chatting with our new partners.

With a sigh, I got up and the three of us made our way to our next class.

"I can't believe that I have to dance with Rose for the remainder of my time at this school," Emmett mumbled.

"I don't even get your problem. Not so long ago you were trying to get her to go out with you," Jasper said.

"Yeah, but that was before she turned me down and started to bitch at me at any given opportunity. The girl hates my guts."

"She doesn't hate you. Rose is just...err..."

"A bitter bitch."

Jasper sighed.

"I wish I would have gotten the little Swan as a partner," Emmett continued. I snorted. "What? She's hot and a lot nicer than Rose."

"Not to me," I argued.

"Well, it's not like you have been nice to her either," Jasper reasoned.

Thinking about it, I realized that he was right. Although it hadn't been my intention to be rude to her. Not exactly.

I sighed again. "I'll be nicer to her," I murmured.

"You better. She's your new dancing partner."

"Damn, I can't wait to see her dance and outshine little Eddie," Emmett laughed as we entered the dance studio.

"Who said that she's gonna outshine me?"

"Didn't you pay attention? Her mother-"

"Yeah, yeah. There is no guarantee that she's a talented dancer though."

"She has to be. You don't think your mother lets just anybody in, do you?"

I shrugged. Just then, Mr. Banner entered the room and called us to attention. I went through the motions almost on autopilot, not thinking too much about the things that I did. I was too caught up in my thoughts. Before I knew it, it was time for lunch break. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it, but followed Emmett to the cafeteria anyway and even went to sit with him and Jasper, knowing full well that the girls would join us. I hoped I could get to know Bella better. If I was really charming I might even be able to make her like me - or at least not hate me so much. I still wanted to curse my mother for partnering me up with her. Even if Bella was in fact a ballet dancer, she was probably the least disciplined one I had ever met. The way she carried herself and her arrogant attitude also didn't make her seem like a graceful person, let alone a ballerina.

"Oh, what a surprise, the great Edward Cullen graces us with his presence," Rose mocked as she approached.

I didn't grace her with a response. I secretly envied Emmett, but then quickly changed my mind when I looked at Rose. The bad mood practically radiated off of her and she didn't even acknowledge our presence. She was poking around in her food, taking a bite every now and then, which she chewed slowly as if she didn't actually want to swallow it. I raised a brow at Jasper, who was the only person - apart from Alice - who was able to deal with Rosalie's mood swings.

"Are you okay, Rose?" Jasper asked her in that easy-going way of his. Amongst all of us, he was currently the only one without a problem. It kind of bothered me that Jasper always seemed to have everything falling into place.

"No," his sister grumbled in response and stabbed a potato with her fork.

Jasper waited for her to continue, but she didn't say anymore; she just continued to assassinate her food.

"Hey, where's Bella?" Emmett asked.

"Alice and Bella left," she replied curtly.

"They left?" I asked in wonder.

"Yeah. Something about watching old videos," Rose shrugged.

"And you didn't go with them?" Jasper asked her.

"Bella didn't want me to." Rose then turned her attention to Emmett. "I hope for your sake that you are a better dancer than Edward."

Emmett ignored her, while I glared at Rose. She didn't mind and just continued to kill her already dead food. Sometimes I wondered how we all managed to always hang out with each other even though we didn't exactly get along. With a small sigh, I just resumed eating looking around the room in a casual manner. About halfway through lunch, which we had all spent without speaking much, my eyes caught sight of Bella and Alice, entering the cafeteria followed by my mother. Something was odd about it. Bella looked a little distant, while Alice was glowing with excitement and my mother watched Bella worriedly. She said something to her and got a nod in return before she went to join the other teachers at their table. Both Alice and Bella were headed for our table.

"What's got you all excited?" Emmett asked Alice.

Alice opened her mouth to answer, but then turned to look at Bella. Bella looked up and shook her head at Alice in warning.

Normally, my cousin didn't care too much about sharing information that others didn't want to share, but in this case it seemed like Bella's narrowed eyes were enough to convince her.

"Sorry, can't tell you," Alice answered simply with a shrug.

I frowned along with Emmett. This was strange.

Rose raised her eyebrows at Alice, questioning her silently.

Alice shook her head and mouthed something at her.

Rose's eyes lit up in slight understanding and she nodded back at her.

I was just left being confused. Bella, who sat down beside Jasper, sighed softly and stared off into space. For a moment, I thought she was looking at me, but after a few seconds I saw that she was really looking past me. Whatever she was thinking about made her frown. For the first time since I had met her, I got to look at her face for longer than just a few seconds. As I had noticed before, she was pretty. No, not pretty - she was beautiful. Her face held a mixture of mystery, warmth, and a trace of vulnerability. It was strange to see her face like this. She wasn't turning away for once, even if it was only due to the fact that she was lost in thought, and for once I could see that there was more to her than just the cocky attitude that usually radiated off her. I wondered briefly what had happened before for her to leave herself open like that.

Someone nudged me then. I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at Alice, who raised her eyebrows at me in turn.

"What?" I asked her.

"I asked if you are coming to the beach with us today," Alice replied in an impatient tone.

"What do you want to do at the beach?"

"Err... hang out?" she suggested sarcastically.

"Only the weather isn't exactly suited for that," I countered.

Alice looked out the window and frowned at the cloudy sky. "Fine," she grumbled. "We can do something else then."

"Like what?" Jasper asked.

"I actually planned on hitting the gym later," Emmett said while gulping down the rest of his Diet Coke.

"I hope for your sake that you won't be out of shape tomorrow," Rose hissed at him. Emmett just ignored her.

"I think, I'm going to use this afternoon for some practicing," I threw into the round.

"You are always practicing," Alice objected.

"Of course I am, that is the reason that I'm here - to dance."

She just rolled her eyes at me.

"If we are not going to do anything special, I'm gonna be holing up in the library to get some homework done. I'm kinda behind in classwork," Jasper mumbled.

"You always are behind," Emmett noted.

"Not true."

"Of course it is. I've never once seen you doing anything for school until the teachers announced some kind of test or something. It's still a mystery to me how you can always pass everything with such excellent grades."

Jasper shrugged and muttered something about being a genius.

"Fine, if you boys are all going to be totally lame, we are going to do something without you, right, Rose?" Alice sighed.

Rose only shrugged in answer but then caught Alice's glare and nodded her head halfheartedly.

The bell chose to ring in that moment. All of us rose from our chairs and gathered our things to head for our next classes. Only then Bella seemed to snap out of her stupor and looked around in slight confusion.

"Time for class," I reminded her.

She looked up at me with wide eyes, before her eyes narrowed slightly and then her brows furrowed. Then she got up as well and went with Rose and Alice. I didn't know what to make of that, so I just ignored her behavior. On my way to class, I noticed that the number one topic amongst my fellow students was the new partnering in the Junior Pas de deux class.

"You'd think they all have problems of their own," Jasper muttered when passed a few girls who were gushing about Emmett and Rose being partners.

I agreed with him, especially since I heard my name and Bella's being mentioned many times. Apparently, the news had gotten around that Bella was the daughter of ReneƩ Swan.

I glared at my mother all the way through French class, despite her skillful avoidance of my eyes as she went about teaching the class as usual. When I got to English Lit, I saw that Bella was already there, her head on the table like it usually was. Her eyes were closed and I briefly wondered if she was sleeping.

I took my seat behind her, staring at the back of her head without any real reason to do so. Yet, every time I let my eyes wander around the room, they landed on her again. I had a feeling that she sensed me looking at her, because she shifted around on her chair a couple of times, seemingly uncomfortable.

By the end of the lesson, I had Bella's hair colour memorized. Mahogany brown with a slight touch of red, which could hardly be seen.

The rest of the day passed quite slowly. Here and there I heard people talking about Bella and it seemed like the whole school didn't have anything else to talk about. While the girls were all making nasty remarks about how she could never come even close to her mother's skills, the boys were all thinking up plans to get into her good graces. Or more accurately, they were planning to hook up with her. For some unknown reason, this bothered me, but I just discarded it. Having the whole school talking about just one person was, of course, very irritating.

As always, after school I slipped into one of the music rooms and made myself comfortable in front of the piano. I continued with the song that I had just recently started and played for quite some time until I got bored with it. I went back up to my room and decided to nap until it was time for dinner.

I drifted off into sleep rather quickly. A brown-haired girl made a lot of appearances in my dreams.

Bella POV

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck. How was I supposed to manage dancing with that prick, Edward?

I barely paid attention to the things that happened around me.

"Come on, Bella," I heard Alice say as she nudged me slightly. I blinked and looked at her. She gave me an encouraging smile, which I found weird since she had been scowling at me a few minutes ago.

I got up and made my way out of the classroom, not looking at Alice. When I stepped out of the room, I took a deep breath. The air seemed strangely suffocating.

"Bella?" I turned at the sound of Madam Esme's voice. She approached me with a worried expression on her face. "Are you okay?" she asked carefully.

"How could you partner me up with Edward?" I blurted without really thinking about it.

She looked at me with a slight frown. "I-"

"He's awful, selfish, arrogant and just downright horrible," I ranted. An irritated impatience started to fill me and for some reason I just felt the need to be angry about something.

"Bella, are you sure you are not being a bit harsh?" I heard Alice ask. The tiny girl appeared behind her aunt and looked at me with wide eyes.

"I don't care," I snapped at her. "I agreed that I'd try to put more effort into classes, but I never agreed on partnering up with one of the most arrogant students in the whole school. I don't want a Pas de Deux partner, especially not Edward."

Madam Esme gave me a calm look. "Maybe we should go to my office," she suggested.

I didn't actually want to go with her, but something about her made me follow her to her office. Alice walked beside me in silence.

When we stepped into the headmistress' office, Alice closed the door quietly behind me, while, Madam Esme switched on a TV that I hadn't seen before in the office.

"Sit down," she instructed.

I looked at Alice in confusion, who just nodded in return. We both sat on a chair, our attention turned to the TV. Madam Esme perched herself on her desk and pressed 'play' on the remote. I immediately recognized what we were watching. A female voice was speaking, announcing a contestant. I heard my name and the piece that I was going to dance. The video must be about three years old. I saw myself jumping onto stage.

It was kind of surreal. It had been quite some time since I had last seen myself dance. La Fille Mal Gardee had been one of my mother's favorite dances. She had always said I looked so carefree and happy when I was dancing it. Of course it had taken me lots of practicing to make it look so carefree. I remembered how my mother had spent hours making the dress that I wore for the performance.

I bit my lip and the next dance came on. It was my performance at the American Dance Competition - La Esmeralda.

"You did it!" Mom squealed. "It was so beautiful, my Bellarina."

I got down from my platforms and looked at her, jumping up and down excitedly. I smiled at my mother gratefully and bowed.

"I am 100% sure that no one else is able to dance better than you. You are perfect."

"I hope the judges will think so too," I muttered and sat down on the floor to take off my pointes.

"Of course they will. Even a blind person can see how absolutely wonderful you are."

I sighed at my mother's enthusiasm, but couldn't hide the little smile on my face.

"Come on, one more time - I'll even join you this time."

"But I just took my shoes off," I whined.

"Then put them on again," Mom insisted.

With a roll of my eyes, I put my shoes on again. There was no point in arguing with her once she got this excited.

My vision was getting blurred, while the music kept playing and I could hear the audience on TV whisper and occasionally applauding. My heart started to beat faster. The sounds were all too familiar and I secretly yearned to return to my former way of life. But I knew that I couldn't. I could never be the same girl again and it was all my fault.

"But Mom-"

"No, Bella. I know how this works and trust me when I say that it's not good for you to be signed this early," she interrupted me.

"Of course it's good for me. Why wouldn't it be? I'll be a professional dancer, I'll get paid, I'll be recognized, and I get to dance in some of the biggest plays that have ever been written. I don't see what is so bad about me being able to dance Swan Lake," I argued.

"Isabella," my mother sighed in exasperation. "You are only fifteen. I don't want you out in the cruel world of Ballet so soon. You aren't even done with school yet."

"I'll be sixteen next month and you got signed by the Ballet Arizona when you were sixteen, so why can't I?"

"Exactly. That is why you should trust me with this. I've already been there and I know what I'm talking about."

"You just don't want me to get signed. You're just scared that I'll be more famous than you. You just don't want me to overshadow you," I shouted.

My mother rolled her eyes at me. "You know that's not true," she said.

I didn't listen to her. "You just ruined my entire career," I screamed as I stomped upstairs to my room. I didn't understand why my mother didn't want me to take advantage of this wonderful offer.

I went into my room to quickly grab my sports bag. On my way out of my room, I made a big show of banging the door to make my mother think I was now sulking in my room. I quietly tiptoed down the stairs and looked around to be sure that Mom didn't see me. She continued washing the dishes and had her back turned toward me. I quietly slipped out of the house and let out a deep breath. I usually didn't sneak out at night, but I was not in the mood to stay in the house.

I walked down the street, still fuming and with no intention of going back home any time soon. Before I knew it, I stood in front of the little ballet school in the neighborhood. The lights were still on. Mrs. Schmidt, who the school belonged to, walked out of the little building.

"Oh, Isabella, what are you doing here so late?" she asked when she saw me.

I shrugged. "Just walking around. Just had an argument with my mother," I mumbled.

"I'm sure the two of you will get it settled soon," Mrs. Schmidt offered.

"Maybe," I allowed, but then had an idea."Um... Mrs. Schmidt?"

"Yes?"

"Is it possible for you to let me in the studio to dance for a while?" I asked.

Mrs. Schmidt smiled gently at me. "Of course. Here, I'll give you the key and you just come around tomorrow and give it to me, okay?"

"Sure." She handed me the key and after a quick good-bye, she took off.

I let myself into the studio and walked around for a moment before I went over to the stereo and turned it on. The song that played was "All of Me" by Jon Schmidt. I knew that Mrs. Schmidt had a special preference for this song because she shared the name with the composer. Her students always had a hard time dancing to it, since it was so fast. Even I had problems with it, but I didn't care at the moment and just put on my pointes. I quickly pulled on my dancing dress, restarted the song, and lost myself immediately in the slow notes in the beginning.

It was easy to forget everything around me whilst dancing. I twirled around and jumped and couldn't even tell the difference between floor and ceiling. My bad mood was starting to fade and instead an ecstatic high made its way through me. An unusual lightness that always overcame me when I was dancing began to fill me. A small laugh escaped my lips just when the music reached its climax.

Then I heard sounds that weren't supposed to be there. A loud sounding bang, that reminded me of a shot, followed by a scream. I stopped dancing and listened more carefully. It took me a moment to register that I had indeed heard a shot and my mind slowly processed the scream. The voice was too familiar.

I walked out on the streets, still in my pointes. My instincts led me around the corner. The scene in front of me was so surreal that I couldn't believe it at first. I recognized my mother easily, despite the darkness. She looked as beautiful as always and if it weren't for the blood covering her body, it could have been a perfectly peaceful picture.

"Bella? Bellaaa?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and saw Alice and Madam Esme right in front of me. Madam Esme handed me a tissue. I took it and looked around the room. Something here was making a terrible noise.

"Bella, calm down. Everything's okay," Alice said soothingly. Then it occurred to me that the terrible noise I heard was me - I'd never liked the sound of me crying, let alone howling like a wounded dog. "Should I get her to her room?" I heard Alice ask.

My breath hitched. I didn't like to be treated like I was sick and fragile. I tried to swallow my sobs, which only resulted in me shaking badly. I took slow breaths and tried to banish the memory of my mother's dead body.

"I don't think that is going to be necessary, Alice," Madam Esme answered and then gently pushed her aside. She knelt down in front of me and took both of my hands. "I'm sorry for upsetting you, Bella. I had no idea with what kind of things you were dealing with," she said apologetically. I just nodded slowly.

"I'm sorry if this is the wrong moment," Alice began slowly, "But you are an amazing dancer. I was totally blown away when I watched." Alice eyes practically glowed. "I can't believe that you never told me that you are such an amazing dancer. Edward is so lucky to have you as a partner."

I couldn't reply to that. I wasn't even sure if my voice worked at all.

"Alice, just let her be for a moment," Madam Esme warned and then turned to me. "Bella, I know that this is hard for you, but I just want you to see that you are such a great dancer, one of the most talented in your age group, and you shouldn't waste talent like that. Your mother worked hard to get you to where you are today and I'm sure she wouldn't want you to be miserable all your life." I knew that there was truth in her words, but I wasn't quite ready to accept it. "I paired you up with Edward on purpose because I hope that it might be good for the both of you."

"What good will I do for Edward?" I asked in a hoarse voice.

Madam Esme smiled. "You'd be surprised how much improvement Edward still needs." I didn't know what to make of her words but didn't say anymore.

My tears had stopped flowing and I wiped away the remaining wetness on my face.

"Do you want to join the others for lunch?" Alice asked out of the blue. Taking one last deep breath, I nodded.

"Let's go to lunch then." Madam Esme got up and held out her hand toward me. I took it and she helped me up.

On our way to the cafeteria I tried to ignore the worried glances of Madam Esme and Alice. After we had gotten our trays, Madam Esme turned to me one more time.

"Are going to be alright?" I nodded at her and she smiled once more at me.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. I went through my motions and was mostly lost in thought. I thought about all my past performances and how I had enjoyed being on stage. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to dance again. Although my mind was preoccupied with other things all day, I didn't fail to notice that someone was always watching me. Apparently, the whole school was talking about me and Edward being partners. I ignored them.

When the school day ended, Alice and Rose caught up with me. They tried to persuade me to go swimming with them, but after telling them about three times that I wasn't feeling well, they let me be. I went to my room and just threw myself on my bed. The day had totally exhausted me. I slowly drifted off to sleep. My dreams were filled with pointes, tights, tutus and even Edward made an occasional appearance. That disturbed me so much that I abruptly woke up.

"Bad dream?" Victoria asked, looking up from her small mirror.

I rubbed my eyes and stretched. "You could say that," I replied hoarsely.

"You should take a walk around. I always do that after a bad dream - shakes off the memories when you see all those freaks walking around here," she advised.

I laughed slightly, "I might just do that." I got out of bed and went over to the closet and put on another sweater.

"I'll go with you," Victoria said and together we walked out of the room.

We wandered around the school, but it didn't actually help me much. All those people walking around in dancing gear, talking about dancing or listening to music just reminded me of my ballet dreams. There was no real escape. If I wanted to survive here I had to get back to dancing.

"Do you hear that?" I looked at Victoria. We hadn't actually talked much and were now walking around in an empty corridor on our way back to our room. I listened for any other sounds and heard music coming out of one of the practice rooms.

"I thought we weren't allowed to use the practice rooms outside of class," I said.

"Well, it is allowed, but we need permission to do so," Victoria shrugged. "Should we take a look inside?" Her eyes gleamed.

I sighed and rolled my eyes but nodded anyway.

Victoria led the way to the room where the music came from and opened the door slightly. The sight in front of us was almost dream-like.

He was spinning and twirling with an uncanny grace. His steps were light and elegant and his whole being seemed to be in tune with the music. I couldn't take my eyes off him and watching him made me feel strangely calm. The music started to fade and his movements slowed. When the last note had sounded, he turned around. Despite the fact that Victoria and I were both standing there, Edward was only looking at me. His piercing green eyes looked right through me and I was just left to stand and stare. In that moment, I knew that dancing with Edward might be a good thing.

But it didn't change the fact that it scared me.


xoxoxoxo - I'm sooooooooo sorry that you guys had to wait that long. I'm currently not able to type on a regular basis due to some private issues which will hopefully be solved in a couple of weeks. I'm not really at home at the moment so right now I'm uploading this chapter with my phone- the things I do for my readers... Okay, so the chappie might have a few mistakes and I apologize for that -.-' Weeell, I don't have anything to say. Just leave a review and make my day.

Lots of love!

~Star~