Stephenie Meyer owns all TWILIGHT characters.

The Twilight Twenty-Five
thetwilight25[dot]com

Prompt: 18 – pitch
Pen name: IngenueFic
Characters: Bella, Edward
Rating: PG

All prompts can be found here:
www[dot]thetwilight25[dot]com/round-five/prompts/

At this very moment, Bella wants nothing more than to tackle Alice to the ground and yell in her face.

The heels and sundress are uncomfortable but a necessity right now. Her shoes click on the floor and she stares at her colored toes instead of at the wall of mirrors in front of her.

"God, Bella, you look like you're about to be executed or something."

"Shut up, Alice. I hate this."

"Oh, come on, it could be fun," her best friend says. "Besides, it's for a good cause, right?"

Bella doesn't say anything. The classes are for Alice's wedding so if she disagrees, Alice will never speak to her again. If she agrees, she'll be admitting – in a roundabout way – that the dance classes are worth the embarrassment that is bound to ensue once the music starts. With a giant sigh, Bella just shrugs and glances around. Alice and Jasper are here, of course. The bride-to-be is determined to have her wedding party "do a dance." She didn't want the normal swaying of couples to some cheesy love song nor did she want to ruin her wedding video with crappy dance moves from the '80s.

Oh, no.

Not at all.

Alice Brandon wants her and Jasper, along with her sister Cynthia as her maid of honor and Jasper's cousin Emmett as his best man, and the five attendants on each side, to start with a waltz after they're introduced to the guests. The music will stop suddenly, though, like something is wrong but really, the beat will change and the couples will salsa and samba their way to the end.

In other words, Alice wants a show and Jasper is more than happy to indulge her. Bella is almost positive he's actually more excited about the samba part than he's letting anyone know.

A small group of people walk into the dance studio and Bella immediately knows that they are the instructors and assistants or whatever. She can tell by the way they walk, the way they carry themselves across the dance floor. Of course, that may have also been the shot of tequila she took before the class in an attempt to calm her nerves.

"How are you holding up?" Rosalie asks from beside her. Bella shrugs. She, Alice, and Rosalie have been friends since their first year in college and they've only grown closer in the six years since then. "You're not going to puke, are you?"

"No!" Bella's voice carries and everyone in the room pauses to look at her. "Uh, sorry," she says meekly.

"You need to calm down," Rosalie chastises her. "It won't be that bad. At least your partner is Riley. He, at least, has rhythm."

He does, but Bella isn't sure if that's a good thing or not. Unfortunately, she won't be able to see for herself today because Riley's on a business trip and won't be joining their classes until the next week. Rosalie's in the same boat with Jasper's cousin, Peter. He's a good guy but has two left feet. The verdict over whether Bella or Peter is the worse dancer is still up in the air. Peter's not here either. He's in town but is sick and Jasper flat out told him to stay home lest he face the wrath of Alice.

No one else in the wedding party needs to be sick.

"Bella? Rosalie?" Alice calls them from the middle of the room where she's standing with Jasper and the instructors. "Can you guys come here?"

They walk over to her and Bella notices there are three men and one woman.

"Rosalie, this is Royce," Alice introduces the man with a scowl on his face. He looks less than pleased to be here but his eyes rake over Rosalie's form appreciatively for a second. "He'll be dancing with you today since Peter's out."

Royce huffs out a sigh and nods his head over to the side. An annoyed look crosses over Rosalie's face but she follows him, muttering about conceited little snots who think they know everything. It takes about 20 seconds for Royce to turn around and say something to her. Whatever it is, it must be bad because Rosalie's eyes narrow and then the two of them are arguing.

"Lovely," Alice moans. She raises her voice, "It's one stupid class. Pretend to get along so Rosalie learns the steps."

Bella stifles her giggle. Across the room, Emmett shares a look with her and they both burst out laughing. If Rosalie keeps up her tirade, Emmett will go over and calm her down but for now, it's amusing to see her tell off her stand-in partner.

"And Bella, this is Edward."

When she turns, Bella makes sure to have a smile on her face. It falters only slightly when she catches the crooked smile on the dancer's face. His eyes are bright and he seems to be laughing as well.

"Hi," she greets him. "Sorry you got saddled with me."

"Saddled?" he asks.

"I'm not much of a dancer," she explains. As if on cue, she takes a step toward him and stumbles on a heel of one of her new shoes. Her body pitches forward awkwardly but Edward manages to reach out and steady her. "See?"

This time, he does laugh, but it's light and she doesn't feel like he's making fun of her. "Don't worry. By the time we're done tonight, I'll have you ready to salsa your way back home."

"Doubtful," Bella argues. "But you're more than welcome to try."

He winks at her and holds out a hand. When she takes it, he spins her once, twice, and then she finds herself in what was once an empty spot on the dance floor. Alice raises her eyebrows when their gazes lock and Bella can't help the light blush from appearing on her cheeks.

"Damn, Bella, that may be the most coordinated you've ever been on a dance floor!" Emmett booms out from across the room.

"Shut up!" she yells back. She turns back to Edward. "Sorry."

"My first rule – no apologizing."

"What?"

He shakes his head at her. "I don't want any apologies to come out of your mouth. You're a beginner, yes?" She nods in response. "Then you're going to have stumbles and you're going to forget what to do. That's fine. It happens to everyone. Don't apologize when it happens."

Bella nods again. "Any other rules?"

"Yes. The second rule is to forget about how nervous you are."

"Impossible."

He laughs at her quick response. "I'm serious. Felix has the entire dance choreographed. He's taught it to us. I'm going to help you learn it. Just do whatever Gianna does and you'll be fine. There's no need to be nervous."

"Anything else?" She's almost afraid to hear his answer.

"Just one more."

In the center of the room, Felix and Gianna are in a ready position for the waltz. Edward takes Bella's right hand and holds their arms upright and out to their side. He takes her left hand and places it on his shoulder, running his fingers up to her elbow to make sure it's crooked just so. Sliding his arm right below hers so that she can almost rest against him, his palm is warm against her upper back.

"What's the last rule?" Bella whispers because Felix is already beginning his instruction of a basic waltz.

Edward gives her a smile and leans in so he can whisper in her ear. "Just have fun."

Thanks to oOza for the beta work!