Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or Divergent.

WARNING: Divergent spoilers in this chapter!

Chapter 25

Bella

I'd been pleased to spend the majority of the rest of the week with Emmett, Jasper, Rosalie, and Alice – and of course, Edward – wanting to make the most of the time that they were still in L.A. with me.

Between all of the movie premieres, product launches, celebrity parties, interspersed with lunches in between, I'd felt like they'd all gotten a true Hollywood experience, which they were all endlessly grateful for.

Edward, especially, had received somewhat of a special experience - even aside from the Divergent casting, of course.

Thinking back to the Wonderland photo shoot that he'd sat through early on in the week, I found myself starting to grin.

I'd been slightly distracted by his presence, which Petra Collins, the photographer, had taken full advantage of. She'd captured a number of pictures of me smiling at Edward from the side, and, towards the end, she'd out-of-the-blue asked him to attempt take over her duties, and snap a couple of pictures of me. To which we'd both looked at her with wide eyes, assuming that she was joking.

"Are you sure?" Edward had asked, completely thrown, as Petra had handed her film camera off to him.

"Why not?" was her cheeky response, "We're pretty much finished for the day, so what's a couple more shots?" She shrugged, as Edward lifted both eyebrows, turning right towards me.

The theme of the shoot was quite feminine, and natural. I'd gone through a number of outfit changes – some dressier than others – but currently, I was clad in a pink silk pajama set as I lounged on a bed.

It wasn't quite as scandalous as it sounded – the outfit wasn't horribly skimpy.

Edward moved around to the left side of the bed, as I sat up with my knees tucked under me, following him with my eyes. He snapped a picture, before advancing the film forward.

As I got myself comfortable, resting my head against the pillows, with my hand tucked under my face, he took another picture. Unthinkingly, he moved a stray piece of hair away from my face, causing a smile to grace my lips. Another picture.

The last came when I took the initiative to pull his hand back in place, looking him dead in the eyes as I brushed my lips against his skin. The light streaming through the windows of the studio was hitting my eyes as I heard the familiar sound of the camera taking a shot.

He pulled the equipment away from his face shortly thereafter, blinking and staring at me with a slightly awestruck expression. "You don't even realise how beautiful you are," he breathed out, still caressing my face and making me forget that we'd been amongst a crew of fifteen.

Long story short: Petra had a strong feeling that by the time the roll of film developed, a couple of Edward's shots would need to be credited in the magazine.

Currently, it was Saturday, the day before the Forks crew was set to depart back to their respective cities and colleges. The girls were a lot more eager for another day of fun, waking up practically at the crack of dawn to bombard me in my room, while the boys continued catching up on their beauty sleep.

"Are you nervous to start filming with Edward?" Rosalie asked after a couple of minutes of comfortable enough silence.

The question didn't really throw me off, considering the fact that it had been something I'd been thinking about this past week.

"A little," I nodded, seeing both Rose and Alice shoot me understanding looks, as I hurried to clarify, "I mean, I'm nervous for the expected reason... you know: what if he gets tired of being with me after all of that time spent together?"

Both girls nodded, though they seemed to be holding themselves back from responding until I finished speaking.

"But I guess I'm also nervous about some of the scenes we're supposed to be shooting..." I sighed, "Like... there's this one where our characters have 'the talk', which me and Edward have yet to have."

I shook my head, "I like where we're at right now, so I'm worried that all of that will change if we're not on the same page about..."

"Sex," Alice finished for me after noticing my hesitation, as I agreed softly with a slow nod.

"You want to wait?" Rosalie confirmed as I nodded once more, before explaining, "Maybe not until marriage, but," I shrugged.

Both girls smiled, as Alice cleared her throat, "Do you think that he'd break up with you over something like that?"

I hadn't really ventured that deep in my thinking, but now that I mulled it over, I found myself taking a breath, crinkling my eyebrows. I answered honestly, "I don't know. I'd like to think that he wouldn't…?" My answer came out as more of a question as I looked towards both girls with searching eyes.

Alice began to laugh pretty much immediately, "Well you'd be right. He wouldn't," as if the simple thought of that was truly laughable.

I mean, I knew Edward, and I knew that he wasn't that kind of person... but I also knew that even the most committed boyfriends could turn around and surprise you.

"Bella... I mean, first of all, I'm pretty sure Edward is just as traditional as you are. But also," Rosalie rolled her eyes, "Even if he wasn't, he'd wait for you."

"He'd wait years if you wanted him to," Alice exaggerated, the smile never wavering from her lips, as I stared at the two of them, unblinking.

"How do you know that?" I wondered aloud, as the girls shared a look with one another.

"Because you're the only person he wants that way," Rosalie answered simply. "You can't see it, because you're not an outsider like we are, but… Edward would literally jump through flaming hoops for you, if it meant making you happy. And that's… real."

"I've seen infatuation, but that's something much deeper. Something that he knows he won't find in anyone else but you," Alice piped up, adding to Rosalie's words as I bit down on the inside of my cheek.

"The point is that he's in it until the end," Rosalie stated, a hint of finality in her voice, as I held my breath. "You guys might get into a fight or two during all of this time together - which is completely normal, I might add. But if you're worried about him getting bored of you… you're way off."

The breath released from my lungs, as my lips upturned into a small smile, not realising how much I'd needed that reassurance until now. I trusted their advice, both because they themselves were currently in long-term relationships and therefore had the experience, but also because they'd known Edward for years.

"Thanks, guys," I nodded, feeling the need to reach over and give each of them a hug. "I feel stupid sometimes for having these thoughts, but I appreciate that I have you two to talk to whenever I do," I smiled, as both beamed right back.

"Of course. Sometimes you just need to vent and work through everything with a pair of fresh eyes. We're always here for you, Bella," Rosalie planted her hand on mine, squeezing gently and filling me with an immediate sense of calm.

As much as I was comfortable with Lizzie, Anna, and Kelsey, there were instances where I felt much more inclined to talk to Rosalie and Alice. I knew that I was able to connect with them just a little more. And it comforted me to know that they didn't think of me as a burden. They always seemed truly happy to talk to me whenever I needed them to. Most of all, I appreciated that judgement never seemed to be passed.

Before we knew it, Sunday had rolled around, leaving me and Edward standing near security as Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett and Alice gave us both numerous goodbye hugs.

"Keep us updated on your newfound fame," Emmett joked towards Edward, who could only roll his eyes, before turning obliging, understanding the underlying meaning: keep in touch.

"I will," he assured our friends, as I released Alice from the hug we'd been wrapped up in.

"Thank you guys for visiting," I looked towards each of their faces, which all turned smiling.

"The first of many," Rosalie grinned, as my smile widened, happy to hear that future plans were being drawn up. Following my incoming visit to Forks during Christmas, I figured that they would all return to L.A. the next time one of their breaks rolled around.

"Safe flight," I bid the group adieu, feeling Edward's arm wrap swiftly around my waist as we watched the rest of our friends walk through the bustling line leading up to security, waiting until they all made it through safely.

"So, I guess you're stuck with me now, huh?" I peered up at him, a slight smirk on my face, as he exaggerated a loud sigh, acting as though the news was truly upsetting to him. "I'll try to find it in me to survive," he pursed his lips, looking down at me, unable to keep a straight face as he reached down to press his lips against mine.

The hours had seemingly meshed into one another, so much so that it felt like in the blink of an eye, it was day one of filming Divergent. Edward and I were heading over to one of the studios to begin shooting the scenes that mainly required a green screen with the help of some props. The scenes that needed an actual setting were going to be shot in Chicago, where we'd be flying over to by the next month.

Unsurprisingly, we received a warm welcome from the paparazzi as we pulled up, parking in the lot, and getting ready to head in. The cast listing for the film had been released over the weekend, so the paparazzi had had ample time to make preparations and take every opportunity they could to sneak some behind-the-scenes pictures and footage of us all on set.

Edward and I thankfully made it through the large crowds who were all screaming at the both of us, trying to get our attention.

During our many days and nights of going out this past week, we'd had to deal with very similar treatment, and quite amazingly, Edward had fell into the swing of things as if it were second nature. As usual, we both ignored the harassment, walking briskly to the door of the building. Edward's hand stayed planted firmly on my back, guiding me, even when we got inside.

The contact, simple as it was, sent electricity coursing through my veins.

As the two of us walked into the large building, a crew of about ten different people separated us, guiding me one way and leading Edward the next.

Ah, 'hair and make-up', I gathered, as I seated myself on the chair in front of the large mirror, harsh lights shining across my face. There were two other actresses getting the same kind of treatment, and I smiled pleasantly towards them both, recognizing one as Zoë Kravitz, who smiled right back, asking me how I was doing - I could tell that we were going to get along just fine.

The other one simply rolled her eyes, as I resisted the urge to roll mine in response. With cropped hair, that was currently getting dyed brown, I recognized that she was the actress who was going to portray Molly – a girl known for her rudeness and brutality.

Maybe she was already channelling the character she was set to play?

The hair stylist, a short blonde woman in her early thirties, introduced herself as Amelia, describing exactly what she was going to be doing with my hair. I'd already known when I signed up for the role of Beatrice that it would be dyed blonde, but I breathed a silent sigh of relief, hearing her assure me that it was going to be more of a dirty blonde colour, so it wouldn't be as far off from my natural hair.

And, of course, it would only be temporary. I'd be able to go back to mahogany in a few months time.

That only got me to worrying about Edward's hair, figuring that they were going to take that unique mess of brown highlighted with streaks of red and gold, and just strip it down to a flat, dark brown. Obviously, he'd still look incredible, but I'd miss the bronze in the time that it would be gone.

As Amelia worked her magic, I began texting Edward, asking him if he was getting along all right. I openly laughed when he talked about how strange it felt getting his hair dyed, and getting things applied to his face – welcome to the club, buddy - but felt a deep sense of reprieve hearing that he was getting along with the other actors thus far. Only one or two out of five were looking to be a bit of a problem.

Same with me, I wanted to respond, looking pointedly at the actress whose name I had yet to find out - not that I was particularly interested in getting acquainted with her.

Soon enough, my hair was being taken out of the pieces of foil it had been wrapped up in, as Amelia washed and began to style it. All the while, I was presented with the different choices of outfits I was going to be wearing throughout the film.

Most consisted of fitted gym tank tops, or long-sleeved cotton shirts paired with black tights, jeans, or leather pants. For shoes, the choices were mainly black boots, both ankle and knee-high, and black sneakers. These, of course, were all of Tris's outfits following her choice to become Dauntless.

Her Abnegation outfits were all grey and loosely fitted, consisting of shirts, cardigans, pants, and flats. Everyone in that 'faction', as they called it, was supposed to be fundamentally conservative, dress-wise.

Thankfully, I wasn't going to be wearing much of her Abnegation outfits until we flew over to Chicago. Right now, we were focusing on the scenes where Tris was indoors at Dauntless. The scene, in particular, that was going to be shot today was her first day of training.

Before beginning the process of filming, the cast would be getting a couple of truncated fighting lessons, before learning how to shoot a gun. It was all kind of ironic, considering that that was exactly what happens in the scene - the initiates learn how to fight and shoot a gun.

This was going to be an on-going thing. We'd get some practice, figure out our moves, and then film. Sometimes, it would take an entire day to get the fluidity of our movements down, pushing filming to the following day. It all really depended on how quickly each of us learned.

"And, you're done!" Amelia clapped, tying my newly wheat-coloured hair into a high ponytail. My eyebrows lifted, taking a while to get adjusted to the new colour of my hair, but at the same time, unable to deny the fact that she'd done a brilliant job.

"Thank you, Amelia," I smiled, standing, and feeling my hair gingerly as if it would have a totally different texture now, "It looks great," I turned towards her, as she waved me off, gathering me some casual gym wear to get dressed into for the practice runs.

A tall, muscular guy with tanned skin, looking to be in his mid thirties stood in front of us, with two minions flanking either side of him.

Introducing himself as our instructor, he informed us that he would be helping whip us all into shape for the film, and would be here throughout the process to help with any problems with our fighting techniques.

Looking around Zoë, down the line of actors, I searched for a mop of newly dyed brown hair, holding back a smile when I confirmed my suspicions that Edward could, in fact, look marvellous with absolutely any colour of hair. It had even been trimmed a bit, to reduce its usual messiness.

He was focused on the instructor, clearly not wanting to be rude. But his eyes kept darting in different directions, inconspicuously looking out for me. And might I add, when they finally found me, I found myself wishing that I'd had a camera to forever immortalize the look of shock and wonder on his face as he took in my adjusted appearance.

Giving him a cheeky wave, his face broke out into a crooked grin as Brian, the instructor, began demonstrating some moves on one of his helpers.

Both of our heads snapped back to the front to give him our full attention.

Edward was, and needed to be, especially conscious of all of Brian's actions, since, in a sense, he was going to be the Brian of the film. The character that he was playing - Tobias, or Four as he is commonly referred to in the beginning – was basically Tris, Christina, Will, and some other initiates' trainer.

Soon enough, the girls and guys separated to begin practicing with one another. I stayed close to Zoë, while Edward worked with Ben Lloyd-Hughes, the actor playing Will.

After about an hour, we were all getting the hang of it, and the trainers were there to help if we needed to adjust our stances.

When everyone was fine with all of the movements, we all formed back into a line as Brian got one of his helpers to hand each of us a gun of our own. They weren't real guns; as in, they didn't fire bullets or shells. However, they were equally as dangerous. They fired blank cartridges and contained real gunpowder.

Brian showed us all how to hold the guns properly, making sure that we all knew the basics, before we were led off into different rooms each, to practice firing the weapons. It took the group of us collectively a little longer to get comfortable with that particular task – about an hour and a half. And even so, a lot of the actors were still having trouble.

Thankfully, that part of the scene focused mainly on Ben, Edward, and I, so once the three of us were all comfortable enough with working the blanks, everyone went back over to the dressing rooms to get ready to film. My hair hadn't gotten too messed up throughout the practice, but it was a bit frizzy. So, spraying something lightly around it and fluffing it up a bit before retying it, Amelia clasped her hands together again, satisfied with the product.

She then led me over to a room to change into my outfit for the scene, consisting of a tight-fitting stretchy tank top, pulled over a sports bra, along with fitted gym pants and black sneakers.

Once I was dressed and seemingly ready to head back out, she called in another, equally as pleasant girl to work on my make-up.

Beatrice was supposed to be a relatively plain character, so I wasn't too surprised when the make-up artist finished working on me in just under ten minutes, allowing me to head out and meet the other actors.

I was amazed when I walked into the space, observing the details within the room, dotted with cameras that were currently being adjusted. With a row of targets at the end of the room, punching bags hung up on the ceiling, and a chalkboard at the front, everything looked pretty much exactly as I'd imagined it to, from the book.

Actors were all organized into different spots, including myself, and there were small x's planted across the floor in the event that any of us happened to forget our blocking.

Before I knew it, the director was yelling, "Action," and the first take began with Edward walking across the room, clad in a black T-shirt, black semi-skinny pants, and black combat boots.

Not bad.

Handing each of us a gun, he began, "The first thing you will learn today is how to shoot a gun. The second thing is how to win a fight." This was when he handed the gun to me, his hand unconsciously lingering a bit.

Then, smoothly, and completely in character, he went on to explain the process of initiation, and how it was divided into three stages, where each stage was weighted differently.

"We believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear," Edward continued, before explaining what exactly each stage of initiation had been created to prepare us for.

To give some background, Will, Christina, Tris, and a few other sixteen year-olds had all come from a different faction, or society, than Dauntless. Each faction comprises of people who share a particular value. The Dauntless value bravery, Abnegation value selflessness, Candor, honesty, Erudite, knowledge, and Amity, happiness. At the age of sixteen, people were presented with the option of transferring from their current faction into another. Hence the reason Tris had moved over from Abnegation to Dauntless.

Once selecting the faction you wished to become a part of, an initiation process was undertaken, wherein if initiates didn't assimilate themselves well enough into their new faction, they were thrown out onto the streets.

Tris was special because she didn't fit into just one division, which made her Divergent. Naturally, it was highly dangerous for someone to be Divergent, so she was forced to keep quiet about it.

"But what…" Miles Teller, the guy who was portraying Peter - a character that Tris didn't quite get along with - yawned, before continuing, "What does firing a gun have to do with… bravery?"

In this scene, the initiates had all woken up pretty early after a long night of getting settled, explaining Peter's apparent exhaustion.

What Edward did next in the scene was flip the gun he'd been holding, pressing the barrel to Miles's forehead, and clicking the 'bullet' into place. Miles immediately froze, as Edward snapped, "Wake. Up. You are holding a loaded gun, you idiot. Act like it."

It was hands-down one of the strangest things for me seeing Edward acting so tough. But, I had to admit that it was definitely an interesting change, seeing him flip into such a completely different persona.

As the scene progressed, it took several takes to film the conversation between Will and Tris, where she was attempting to fire the bullet into the target, but kept missing. Will was poking fun at that fact.

Edward was in the background for this one, and I saw him smile as Ben cracked the joke written in the script, "Statistically speaking, you should have hit the target at least once by now, even by accident."

After the fourth take, Ben and I had finally captured the scene's essence, before the directors moved onto the next one, where the punching bags, and our newly acclaimed fighting skills, came into play.

"As I said this morning, next you will learn how to fight," Edward said. Again, this scene was a bit tricky, so it took a few takes before the directors were all satisfied with Edward's teaching skills and demonstrations, as well as all of the initiates' work on the punching bags.

Brian was called in at one point to help with positions, and getting everyone to hold proper fists, before we all finally got the hang of it. I guess that this was the problem with hiring actors who'd all had zero martial arts experience. Constant practice.

Another take began, and I began practicing kicks and punches on the tough punching bag, visibly struggling with it as I was supposed to be. Edward was walking around the room, inspecting everyone as they practiced on the equipment, and like Tris when she's cross-examined by Four, I couldn't help but feel self-conscious as he stopped in front of me.

His eyes scientifically appraised my body, before speaking, "You don't have much muscle, which means you're better off using your knees and elbows. You can put more power behind them."

Edward then pressed a hand to my stomach, on my ribcage. I physically had to control the shivers running down my spine as I remembered Tris then staring wide-eyed up at Four.

"Never forget to keep tension here," Edward said softly, before releasing his grip and walking off.

Like Tris, I had to take a moment to collect myself after that one.

Overall, the first day of filming had gone better than expected, and it was looking like we were probably going to finish filming even before the deadline, if we kept the pace up.

Edward pulled me close in his arms that night, as we lay on my bed. He'd promised to retreat to his room before Renée and Phil arrived home – as much as my mom was 'cool', Edward was very much aware of overstepping his boundaries, especially when he was staying with us for quite a long time.

Gazing up into his piercing green eyes, I placed one of my hands along his cheek, stroking it with my fingers, as a lazy smile spread across his face. We were both exhausted from all of the retakes and outfit changes and practicing; all we'd both wanted to do was unwind once the end of the day had been called.

Edward's hand combed through my (temporarily) dirty blond hair, as I leaned up, giving him a gentle kiss on the lips.

I'd been expecting things to get dull, even on that first day, what with Edward and I going through pretty much the same motions. We wouldn't have anything to talk about, right?

But I'd been way off.

It was strange, but I actually felt myself reverting back to the original feelings I'd held for him - which involved me pathetically crushing on him - on set.

I guess it was the fact that the movie focused on Tris and Four developing feelings for each other, starting off small before turning into something deeper. It sort of felt like I was falling in love with him all over again.

The next few days focused more on getting everyone into shape and practicing stunts that were going to be filmed in Chicago. A group of us would train on mornings, and head over to the gym on evenings, practicing lines with each other whenever we got the chance.

And when it was time to start filming once again, the director informed us that we were going to be focusing on getting some of the Tris and Four scenes ready, mingled in with some of the training scenes where the initiates had to fight one another. One particular scene required me to attack the girl who played Molly, who was another one of Tris's fellow enemy initiates. I was a bit nervous for it, as I'd never really had to fight one-on-one with anyone before, but I was hoping that all of that practicing would pay off.

Finally introducing myself to the actress who was playing Molly, a girl named Leah Turner, I got the distinct sense that she wanted nothing more than for me to be thrown off a cliff.

As I'd outstretched a hand for her to shake, she'd plastered a sickly sweet smile on her face, taking my hand and gripping it firmly, only because we'd had a whole audience of crewmembers watching us.

I was genuinely struggling to think up whether I'd done something to offend her, or anger her in the past, only to come up blank. As far as I could remember, this was the first time that the two of us were even meeting.

I knew that regardless of the fact that I would never actually befriend her in real life, for the sake of filming, I was going to have to fake it. Tabloids practically fed off of disputes between actresses on set, and the last thing I wanted was to give the journalists that kind of satisfaction of writing a story.

With that thought in mind, I got ready with the help of Amelia and the other makeup artists, thanking them once again for their help before walking out of the dressing room and into the set of the training room, as everyone took their places.

In the midst of all of the moving around, I felt two arms wind around my waist, reminding me once again of the pros in doing this film, which definitely outweighed the cons. Edward's lips pressed against my cheek, my skin burning with delight at the spot where they had grazed, before he walked over to the other side of the room.

After giving me one last crooked grin, both Edward and I morphed into our characters, as the director yelled, "Action!"

A/N: I was intending on combining chapter 25 and 26 into one, but I felt like there were already enough breaks and time-jumps within this chapter. So I'll just leave it as is!

The majority of this chapter was from the original version of this story that I wrote (in case you recognise it), but I added in that first piece with Rose and Alice, because I really felt like communication between the girls was something that I missed out on before.

I also want to take this time to apologise in advance if the next chapter comes a bit late. I've been really sick this past week (brilliant way to spend my Christmas vacation, I know). It started off as somewhat of a flu, and then it turned into something much worse. Hopefully I can only get better from here.

Thanks for your patience!

Xoxo

LoveACullen