A/N:
The response I got from the first chapter was amazing! Thank you to all of you who are supporting this rewrite. I am glad I can give this to you and that you thought it was a beginning that promised a good story. I hope you're ready! You're in for a ride ;-)
Title: The Perfect Partner Program
Author: MarieCarro
Beta: EdwardsFirstKiss
Pre-reader: brwneyedgrl01
Genre: Angst/Hurt&Comfort/Romance
Rating: NC-17
Summary: The summer of 2005 was the summer that changed Bella Swan's life forever. Sent to Ohio by her mother to attend a school for debutante girls not quite up to par, she meets Edward Masen, an apprentice. But is that really all he is? AH
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter Word Count: 2, 775
CHAPTER 2 ACCEPTANCE
"I have decided that we can forget the little mishap from a few days ago, and I've also been thinking about your ball," Mother said as she lifted the glass of red wine to her lips and took an almost non-existent sip.
I tensed up and my fork stopped halfway to my mouth. I had waited and dreaded this conversation for days since Mother had not brought it up at dinner the night George broke up with me. Today was Sunday, so we were eating Sunday brunch, a weekly tradition Mother had insisted on because that was something she'd always done as she was growing up.
"What about it?" I lowered my fork and looked at Mother anxiously, but she didn't answer straight away, so I turned to Dad, instead, but he seemed to know just as much about it as I did. It made me nervous because whenever Mother planned something on her own, it never ended well for me.
"I spoke to Karen yesterday, and as distraught as she is that George treated you the way he did, she hopes that you will forgive him and take him back."
I looked at Mother as if she were crazy. "He broke up with me, and you two expect me to take him back just like that?"
Mother looked at me disapprovingly. "Being rancorous is very unattractive for a young woman, Isabella. George feels terrible, and he's willing to work on your relationship. You should want the same."
"Why? I don't want to work on a relationship with him. We weren't right for each other," I insisted, but when Mother's hands turned into fists and began to shake, I quieted down.
"A perfect relationship does not happen overnight. You have to put work into it, and you and George are meant for each other. It's time to grow up and accept that."
I looked pleadingly at Dad, and while he gave me a sympathetic shrug, he didn't say anything. He knew that he didn't really have a say in the matter because if Mother had decided that George Carter was going to be my husband then one day that was what would happen.
There was nothing I could say that would change Mother's mind, and I felt rather defeated as I poked at my poached egg with my fork. "What does any of this have to do with my ball, anyway?" I asked quietly and stared at the yolk as it broke and spread all over my plate.
Mother immediately brightened up. "I have decided that you are simply not ready for your ball just yet, and so it will be postponed until your eighteenth birthday."
I straightened up and looked at Mother in disbelief. "Really?" I asked, too afraid to feel hope.
"Yes, and I have something for you." An envelope appeared in her hand. I couldn't tell where she had gotten it from. It was as if she had conjured it from nothing. She offered the official-looking manila envelope to me with a smile, and I hesitantly accepted it.
"What's this?" I asked suspiciously. What could Mother possibly have concocted together this time? News that made my mother this happy was never good in my book.
"A gift," she replied with a shrug as if it were a common occurrence for her to give me things.
I narrowed my eyes at her. "Why?"
Mother sighed. "Just open it, Isabella."
I opened the envelope to find a type-written letter inside.
Dear Miss Swan,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to attend the Academy this summer.
Your application was chosen as one of fifteen for this summer's program. We are looking forward to meeting you in June.
Further information will be given to you closer to the start of the program.
Sincerely
Mrs. E. A. Cullen, Headmistress
My hands shook as I looked up at Mother, my jaw slack from shock. "What is this?"
"You need more lessons, Isabella, so I'm sending you to the Academy this summer."
My spine softened so that I was slouching in my chair, something Mother hated, but I couldn't focus on proper posture because I was completely shocked by her words.
I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that Mother was so displeased with me that she was sending me to the Academy, a school for young girls that were in need of "extra training" in behavior and etiquette. It was mostly for girls that had fallen off the path, according to their parents, and I had lost many friends due to that school. When the girls that went to that place came back home, they were nothing like they'd been when they left. They had been replaced by someone who only cared about their appearance, the latest neighborhood gossip, and who had the significant other that would become most successful.
The mere thought that I could become like that and forget everything that Nana had taught me about always staying true to myself scared me to the core and caused chills to go down my spine.
Tears filled my eyes and spilled down my cheeks as I looked back at Mother. "Are you serious? Are you actually sending me there? Do you hate me that much?"
Dad spoke up for the first time, but to my despair; it was in defense of Mother. "Don't be absurd, Bella. Your mother doesn't hate you," he said, but while he said that, Mother made no move to deny my accusation.
"I want what's best for you," she said in an attempt to sound maternal, but I wasn't fooled. In that very moment, I decided that I had no mother, and I turned to Dad.
"Dad, I don't want to go. Please, don't make me."
Dad looked at me and then at his wife, his expression very torn. I knew he didn't want to make me do anything I didn't want to, but he also knew it was close to impossible to convince his wife that I didn't need to go. The only reason that their marriage wasn't filled with fights like it had been in the beginning was because Dad always let her have her way. His wife had been spoiled rotten when she was growing up, and she was used to getting everything she wanted. In order to maintain some kind of peace in his home, Dad continued in the same manner.
He didn't agree with her on this, though.
"Do we really have to send her there, Renée? Isn't there something else we can do? Maybe she can take extra lessons here? Maybe you can teach her?" he suggested hopefully, but she only huffed.
"She's rough and unrefined, Charles. Karen told me exactly what happened that caused George to break up with her. Did you know she wants to throw her entire life away and join the military? Sleeping in a tent, in the mud, with dirty men!"
Dad's eyes widened as he looked at me, but the difference between him and Renée was that his eyes glimmered with pride. Dad was nothing if not patriotic.
Renée continued on her rant, though. "If the teachers here haven't been able to teach her the necessities by now, she needs someone with a higher level of expertise. If we don't send her to the Academy, we will have failed as parents. Is that what you want? For people to talk about us and our badly behaved daughter? No boy would ever want her again." She knew exactly how to talk to make Dad feel like a lousy father whenever he disagreed with her on some matter, and I knew that the battle was lost when Dad sighed and shook his head.
She clasped her hands together and looked as pleased as the cat that had caught the canary. "And the even better news is that Karen revealed to me that if Isabella spends the entire summer at the Academy, George will give her a ring at her ball. Isn't that just wonderful?"
I was done playing nice with her because I had only done it so far for Dad's sake, but I felt that it was time for my true feelings for the woman that had given birth to me to be revealed.
"So now you're arranging to marry me off as soon as I become legal? That's just great," I said sarcastically. "Do I have a say in the matter? Or am I supposed to sit in the corner, smile, and nod and feel grateful for all the opportunities that are coming my way?"
Renée frowned. "What has gotten into you?"
I looked at Dad and his wife with all the disappointment I felt inside and it actually made Dad shrink down in his chair.
"You know what? Fuck it," I said and stood up, and both of them blanched at my use of the curse word.
"Isabella Marie Swan, what kind of language are you using?" Renée asked with wide eyes and her hand flew to her heart as if the word had mortally offended her.
I smirked in evil mirth. It might have been childish of me, but I didn't care about that. I placed my hands on the table and leaned forward toward her. "I said 'Fuck it.' Say whatever you want, but I'm not going to that stupid academy."
"Oh yes, Isabella, you are!" Renée said with fire in her eyes. She wasn't used to my disobedience, and it was obvious she didn't like it one bit. "See, Charles? This is exactly why she needs to go. It's obvious that we aren't able to raise her correctly if this is how she acts toward her own parents. Now that George has so kindly agreed to take her back on the condition that she goes through the program, it's a necessity."
I narrowed my eyes. "Are you suggesting that no other boy will ever want me if I don't go through with it?" I challenged.
"With the way you're acting right now, it's not a suggestion, it's a given," she replied with a cold voice. That wasn't even the worst she could have said. She was restraining herself for Dad's sake. Had he not been in the same room, she wouldn't have hesitated to tell me what was really on her mind.
"Don't be ridiculous, Renée. Any boy would be lucky to be with Bella." Renée recoiled from Dad's words as if he'd slapped her.
"All of this doesn't matter anyway," I said, "because I'm not going." In one last act of defiance, I crossed my arms over my chest. "You'll have to tie me up and put me in the trunk of the car to get me there."
Renée stood up and slammed her palms onto the surface of the beautiful wooden table. "If that's what it takes, that's what I'll do. You are still a minor, so what I say, goes," she said threateningly, and the staring match between us seemed to go on forever. Both of us were equally stubborn, and neither of us planned on backing down.
But then, Renée calmly sat down in her chair again and took another non-existent sip of her wine. "That is the end of this discussion. When school ends, your dad will accompany you to Ohio."
And that was that. I closed my eyes in defeat and felt my tears burn behind my lids. I had promised myself as a child that I would never let Renée see me cry, but this was by far the worst thing she'd done yet. I never, in my wildest imagination, thought she'd go to such lengths in her obsession to transform me from being the disappointment I was in her eyes to the daughter she wished I'd become. No matter what I felt for her, that fact hurt like no other.
I looked up at the woman that I'd never really known, even though she had given birth to me, with blank eyes. Her smile faltered and fell, but she didn't drop her cold look. I knew it was futile to fight any longer, and so I headed for the stairs with slumped shoulders. By the foot, I stopped and looked over my shoulder. "I guess that's it," I said and my voice shook with my unshed tears. "You win. By sending me to this … this program, you will finally have succeeded in transforming me into the brainless robot you always wanted me to be. Congratulations."
A few tears escaped, but I quickly wiped them away. Dad watched me with a pained expression. It destroyed him to see me like this, but there really wasn't anything he could do, no matter how much he wanted to.
I didn't blame him. It wasn't his fault.
I ran up the stairs and threw myself on my bed and started crying for real.
{=A=}
"You're going where?"
"She's sending me to the Academy, Sis! I'll be gone the entire summer, and when I come back, I'll be just as brain dead as Maggie became after her parents sent her there." I was breaking apart, and Becca tried to calm me down, but no matter what she said, my doom was inevitable. "What am I going to do?"
"Do you know what you're gonna do? You're gonna stay strong, and always remember who you are, okay? You and Maggie are nothing alike. She was always a pushover so her change was expected, but they'll have to take out the big guns to tear you down, babe. No one is taking my best friend away, okay?"
I smiled even though I was feeling everything but happy. Becca had always been able to bring that out in me, and I loved her for it. I couldn't ever imagine my life without her in it.
"You're right. They can try as much as they want, but I'm not going down without a fight."
"That's my girl!" Becca exclaimed with her smile evident in her voice. "We need to make the most of the time we have left. When did you say you have to leave?"
"The day after school ends. Dad's flying with me because Renée has some charity benefit to attend," I replied and rolled my eyes.
"You know it's rather ironic that she's doing so much charity for the city, but she's a complete bitch to her own flesh and blood."
"Oh, please! Whenever she's at one of those benefits, her mask is picture perfect, and it's not like she's truly there for the charity. It's all about being seen and networking. That's what she lives for, and she wants me to do the same."
Becca made a disgusted sound, and I could see it in front of me; how Becca scrunched up her face and wrinkled her nose to show her absolute displeasure. It made me smile again. "Seriously, that life sounds boring as hell!"
I exhaled hard. "You have no idea. You were so lucky to not be born into socialite society."
"Yeah, my life's not too bad, I guess. At least my mom's normal."
"Maybe she could adopt me," I suggested jokingly, but Becca's reply was completely serious.
"She would, you know. She loves you like a daughter, and you and I are practically sisters already."
"As tempting as that sounds, I couldn't do that to my dad. He'd be all alone with her, and I don't think he would survive that."
"True, but back to what I was going to say earlier. We have to make the best of the time we have. It's a month until school ends, and tomorrow is Friday. We have to do something," Becca insisted and hummed as she thought about it.
"Like what?"
It took about a minute, but then Becca gasped as she came up with her brilliant idea. "Oh, I know exactly what we're gonna do. Liam's brother is home from college, and I've heard that there's going to be a party at their house. What do you say?"
I hesitated. It wouldn't be my first party, but the prospect of college guys being there scared me. "I don't know," I said quietly, but it only made Becca more determined.
"C'mon, Babe! Your mother already sees you as a bad apple, so why not make the best of it, and party with Liam? She will hate that."
Becca had a point.
A/N:
Yes, Charlie is a huge pushover when it comes to Renée, and I know some of you will dislike that. If you've never been in a destructive, unhealthy relationship I guess it's difficult to understand why he allows her to act the way she does.
He isn't fully aware of how Renée can act toward Bella when he's not around, but then again, he doesn't really dig around to find out either.
Anyone else who loves friends like Becca?