A/N: As promised, I worked my butt off to have another chapter ready ASAP! I apologize if there are any grammatical mistakes; I probably missed a few in my haste to publish a second chapter in just a few days. That being said, I had a lot of hits but no new reviews. I truly would love to hear some feedback about my fic. I am hoping that the number of hits I have means that there are people who like the story, but I really don't want to be left making assumptions.
As for this chapter, I realize that things have been pretty slow going. In order to make up for that, I have provided you all with the longest chapter I have written so far! I promise that, once I get through Bella's weekend with the Cullens, the story line with move much quicker. That being said, I have always intended for this to be a fairly long fic (maybe 20 chapters or so).
So, without further ado, on with the story!
Bella's POV
"One, two, three, pirouette…four, five, six jetѐ" Rosalie clapped with each count to maintain the tempo and called out the steps. "You're doing better Bella. I think if you try and rehearse it just a few more times this evening, and then test your memory on Sunday, you should be all set for the midterm."
I couldn't help the smile that plastered itself to my face. "Do you really think so, Rose?" I asked. I didn't want to trick myself into a false sense of security in regards to my knowledge of the choreography. If I could just get this into my head, I would be all set come the new term; I would be able to work at the same pace as the other students without the pressure of the previous term's work as well.
Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at Edward, who was working on his turns across his section of the room.
Rosalie smirked as she followed my gaze. "Yes, I really think so, Bella." I focused on Rose once again. "Thanks Rose."
She smiled. Alice was currently sprawled across the floor, sipping from her water bottle, looking bored. "Come on, Alice" I nudged her with my toe. "I know this isn't exactly your idea of a good time, but I promise to hold up my end of our bargain if you keep yours as well."
Alice made a show of rolling her eyes and sighing. "Alright, alright…I know I said that I would help you with the choreography. You best believe me when I say that you better enjoy this time right now, because tomorrow, we are going to shop till we drop!"
Edward made a snort that sounded suspiciously like a covered up laugh. Looking over at him, I saw that he had stopped his turns and was trying to compose himself. Rosalie looked over at her brother with an evil grin.
Rosalie's POV
"Hey Edward, what are you doing tomorrow?" I asked, knowing that he had been grateful when he heard that Alice had been planning a girls shopping weekend. That meant that Alice would not drag him along to help with the shopping bags.
"Um, probably just working on my composition…why?" he asked skeptically. In the matter of a moment, I saw realization set in. "But…"
"Good!" I exclaimed. "That means that you can join us. Besides, you know that the guys would probably give you hell for not having to go with them too." At the prospect of seeing Edward and Bella interact with one another for a full day, I made the executive decision that, rather than just the girls going shopping, we should drag all of the guys along as well. Alice would hardly object seeing as she hates carrying all of her own shopping bags. "It's decided then, Edward. Tomorrow, you will come shopping with all of us; we'll make it a group thing. You won't have to be the fifth wheel this time." I winked at him. Edward knew that out of all of his siblings, I understood him the most in this aspect of his life. All of us Cullen kids had 'coincidentally' paired up as we got older. At first, our parents weren't so sure it was a good idea to let it happen. However, they trusted us, and they knew that the more they told us no, the more chances that we would surely rebel.
Up until now, whenever the five of us wanted to do something together, as a group, Edward would always somehow end up as the odd man out, even when we split up as boys and girls. As the youngest brother, Edward was constantly treated as the low man on the totem pole. However, now that Bella is around, I give it until the end of the school year before they are an item.
Before we all came over to Bella's house to work on some choreography in her studio, I witnessed the exchange that happened between Bella and Edward in the kitchen. I may not have clued in on it as quickly as Alice had, but I still pieced it together. Those two have a connection that they don't even know exists yet. Looking back on their first meeting in the park, when Bella was walking Lucy, I don't know how I missed it. But then again, we all missed it at that point; but not this time.
Bella's POV
"Alright, let's go over the combination just once more, then we can do it with the music; sound good?" I asked.
Rosalie nodded her head in my direction while Alice continued with her theatrics. "Alright," Alice said, droning out each syllable.
After I was certain that I felt more comfortable with the material, I was willing to risk it with the music. I silently hoped that I didn't make a fool of myself in front of Edward. I couldn't help but notice that he kept glancing over at our side of the room as he was working on his own thing.
"Hey Edward," Rosalie called. "Could you please start the music so Alice and I can do the choreography with Bella?"
"Sure," Edward responded as he walked over to the stereo system built into the corner of the room. As he walked over, I noticed his appreciative glance over the electronic devices; he must have had a better idea than I did in regards to what all of the buttons and dials were for.
I prepared myself for the opening count. Standing in the middle of the room, my eyes closed, choreography running through my head, waiting for the music to begin, I tried to clear my mind. I remembered Madame LeClaire, imparting her knowledge upon me when I was one of her dancers; I just needed to let go. Breathing slowly, I felt the vibrations of the acoustics work their way through the room. Then, opening my eyes, I let the steps translate themselves through my body.
In that moment, I was unaware of my surroundings; unaware of the fact that Alice and Rosalie weren't actually dancing with me; unaware of the fact that there were three sets of eyes transfixed on my every movement.
As I finished the combination, and the music came to an end, the tranquility of my own private world was shattered by deafening silence. As I tried to gain my composure, I looked to the three individuals who were still staring at me.
"Remind me, why are you so worried about not getting the choreography?" Alice asked sarcastically. At first, I didn't understand the reason for the tone behind her words. However, it didn't take long for me to figure it out; whenever I took the well spoken advice of Madame LeClaire, I always danced my best. That woman knew me better than anyone else; all I ever really had to do was listen to what she had to say. Looking at my audience, I knew that everything she had ever told me about my dancing was true.
"That was beautiful."
It was a simple statement; if it would have come from either of the other two occupants in the room, I would have smiled my thanks and proceeded to attempt to shift the focus off of me.
"Um…" My mouth went dry and I had to clear my throat. "Thank you." I attempted to smile at Edward. That's when I felt it; my face must have been ten shades of red considering how violently I could feel my cheeks blush. I looked away awkwardly, eyes landing on my water bottle, and then decided I could use a drink. Shuffling my feet in the direction of said water bottle, I felt my left foot catch on my right heel, and before I knew it, the distance between my face and the floor was quickly becoming less and less.
Before I was able to land on the ground at full impact, a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around me. I was vaguely aware of the startled sounds of surprise emitted by both Alice and Rosalie. As for myself, I had managed to make an un-Godly sound the seemed to be comparable a shriek an elephant may let loose just before taking part in a stampede.
While the strong arms around me had prevented me from landing face first on the floor, I had not been shielded enough to prevent all injury; looking at my left hand, supporting some of my weight off of the floor, I noticed that two of my fingers looked un-healthily swollen.
"Are you alright?" Edward asked as he attempted to situate me in a more comfortable position on the floor.
I continued to stare down at my hand; my fingers were steadily taking on a bluish tint, mixed with a bit of purple. "Um, I think so. But, I believe I may have done something to my hand…" I trailed off, gesturing to my left hand. Edward looked at the hand in question and let out a low whistle.
"Looks like you did a number to your fingers. We should probably get some ice on that." He said.
Rosalie and Alice came over to meet us on the floor. "Oh, that's so gross!" Alice exclaimed. I couldn't have said it better myself. I had a record of being quite squeamish with things like this. The only reason I had not passed out at this point was from sheer will power; I could only imagine the embarrassment that would come along with doing that in front of all three of them.
"Why don't we call it a night for dance rehearsal?" Rosalie asked. "We can just put in a bit of extra time on Sunday; sound good to you?"
Too embarrassed to speak, I simply nodded.
Edward and Rosalie helped me onto my feet, both checking me over for any more possible injuries. All I could do was blush further.
"You're pretty good at that." Alice said amusingly.
Confused, I asked, "Good at what?"
"Blushing." She stated bluntly. "It suits you though." She added with a smile. All the while, she had been helping me out of my Pointe shoes.
As we were getting ready to close down the studio room, Alice offered to gather Lucy and her over night anything she may need for the night.
Just as we were all just about to leave the room, Edward stopped. With a smirk, he jogged over the far wall. Bending down, he picked up my forgotten water bottle. "I thought you might want this." He stated. "After your attempted effort to retrieve it in the first place, I figured you may want it." Rosalie snorted right before bending over in uncontrollable laughter.
I gave her a death glare. "For someone so pretty, you'd think such an ugly sound would be impossible to come out of you." I stated coolly. That sobered her up rather quickly. I mentally patted myself on the back; I may be quite intelligent, in the book sense, but I was not typically that quick witted.
As he observed the scene in front of him, Edward couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corner of his lips. "Alright." He said. "Let's get Alice and Lucy and head home. I'm sure she just about has supper ready."
Esme's POV
Looking down at the recipe book that I had opened on the counter top, I skimmed the list of ingredients to make sure I had everything that I needed; we would be having lasagna with a Caesar salad tonight, and lemon meringue pie for dessert; it wasn't every day that I had the chance to host a guest for dinner.
As soon as Alice had informed me that Isabella Swan (and her puppy, Lucy) would be spending the night, I rummaged through my kitchen to make sure I had something suitable to serve for supper and dessert. I have always enjoyed hosting company; it gave me an excuse to try out a bit more upscale cuisine. Being the mother of five teenagers, most of the time, they just wanted something quick and easy so they wouldn't have to wait long. With them, it didn't seem to matter whether it was completely edible as long as they were able to scarf it down fast enough.
As I finished rinsing off my lettuce and patting it dry, my mind wandered to my five children. Over the years, my kids had made a very nice home out of Forks, Washington; it hadn't always been that way though. When the kids were younger, we moved out here from Chicago, IL; Carlisle had been a doctor out there, and when presented with the opportunity to transfer to another hospital with a chief of staff position, he jumped at it, hoping that moving to a smaller town would mean having the opportunity to spend more time with his children. For the most part, he had received his wish. I dread the thought of how things might have turned out if we were still living in Chicago, hardly seeing each other. I can guarantee that it would have been more difficult to figure out how to handle the fact that our children had developed romantic feelings for one another.
I can't help but smile at the memory of this particular hurdle in our lives. When the kids were fairly young, Carlisle and I could not deny the fact that certain kids got along better with others. For instance, no matter how hot headed Rosalie could get, she could never truly become angry, or stay angry for long, with Emmett. It was always similar with Alice and Jasper; no matter how hyper Alice could be, Jasper always calmed her down. On the flip side, Jasper has always seemed to have an agitated disposition. However, Alice has always been able to make he relax.
And then there was Edward.
Oh, Edward; while he has always seemed to get along quite well with all of his siblings, there has also been times at which he was made the odd man out. For instance, when the kids were younger, if they decided to play a game or something, Edward typically opted out or ended up having to share a partner with someone else. Thinking about this reminded me of the exchange that occurred between Edward and Bella right before my own eyes.
Before heading over to the Swans' the kids had all been congregated in the kitchen. I can't exactly recall what had led up to the exchange, but something clearly happened between Edward and Bella; even Emmett, who had quite the knack for being thick at times, had mentioned to me that he had seen something happen as well.
In my opinion, I would say that Edward has finally found his partner. I know that it may be a bit extreme to say something so bold, but I know my son. If what I saw was real, Edward and Bella have a connection that they may not quite understand yet themselves.
Finished with the salad, I moved over to the stove to retrieve the boiling lasagna noodles. After straining them, I sprinkled a small amount of olive oil over the past, mixed it together, and then proceeded to lay out the strips in a glass pan so I could put dinner in the over.
Just after setting the timer for the lasagna, I heard the front door open and close. According to the sigh of contentment that followed, I knew that my husband was home. Soon after I heard him kick off his shoes, he made his way to find me in the kitchen.
With my back to the kitchen door I did not see him enter, so I was slightly startled when I felt his hands around my waist.
"Hello darling." Carlisle spoke into my hair.
"Welcome home." I said to him as I turned around in his embrace. I briefly kissed him on the lips and smiled up at him. "Did you have a nice day at the hospital?" I asked him.
As always, Carlisle smiled down at me and gave me a brief description of his day at work while I cleaned up some of the dishes I had dirtied in the process of making dinner.
As he finished recounting the day's events, I poured us each a glass of wine.
"Oh!" I exclaimed as I put the wine bottle back in the refrigerator. "You should be happy to know that your bet regarding our Edward and Miss Swan is in the lead as of this afternoon."
Please, please, please, please, please review! It would make me so INCREDIBLY happy, not to mention motivated to post another chapter VERY soon!
3 Ava