More Disclaimerly Yuckiness: PotO and Twilight have been officially disclaimed by me.

The day started out as normal as things have been lately. Practice was different than usual, but only barely. The only differences were because I played the lead role. I was so afraid to perform in front of people, but I always knew that my angel was with me. He was the embodiment of music. Everything he did was absolutely perfect, his compositions, his singing, and his instrument playing, everything it was all beautiful beyond human comprehension. I wonder if I will ever see him, and not just hear him, I thought. From his voice, I assumed he was beautiful. Maybe he was deformed and that was his reason for hiding away from the world. I would love him anyway, I decided, nothing so trivial could keep me away from my angel of music.

I was in the smallest practice room, all alone. The dancers were all done for the evening and I was in dire need of the extra practice. I had a problem with switching my lines. When singing with my angel I had the worst time remembering order of line. Actually, around him I hardly noticed anything around me. It was then that I noticed two beautiful eyes staring at me. What are those eyes looking at? I wondered vaguely. Coming out of my daydreams of my angel I noticed that those eyes belonged to kind and understanding Jasper, who was listening to my singing one more time before the performance. I must have stopped singing and not noticed. In fact, I had completely forgotten where I was. Jasper was coming closer, was he angry at me? I had not been quite myself lately and maybe he was concerned, or maybe he was only worried that his star would make a mistake in front of all of those people during the premier.

"I've noticed that you are close friends with a Miss Alice Platt, is this correct?" he asked quietly, standing barely two feet from me now. I couldn't think straight, Why is he asking about Alice? Why can't I move? Why are his eyes so mesmerizing? He trudged on, not deterred by my lack of response, "Do you know if she has many suitors or if she is interested in any of them?"

A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth, finally I would get to play matchmaker for Alice and the man of her dreams, the only man who had ever found a place in her heart. She had torturous visions of Jasper. At times he would be with her and they would be happy and healthy. She was happiest on these days; she would smile and sometimes even be flirty. One time I thought they were even on the verge of kissing. Not so lucky, though. Other times she will see him with other women. She was inconsolable. She would not approach Jasper but occasionally send the poor man daggers with her eyes. Once she had a vision where he died very young, looking the same as he did at the time. Alice did not emerge from her room. Another young man saved him on that occasion and there have been no visions of his demise since. How he could be attracted to her with all those mixed signals I can not understand.

As to the current situation, I unfortunately did not really know how to go about this. A lot of the girls were constantly gossiping and setting each other up, I was not one of those girls. I knew that there was a delicate art to this, and was quite unsure that I could pull this off. I'd have to try though. I just needed to decide if I should tell him outright or lie and make it seem like he would have to work for her affections. I quickly decided on the second approach, "Alice is a beautiful and talented girl, new suitors are constantly struggling to gain her attention." She hasn't expressed to me a great amount of interest in marrying any of them yet, but some of them bring grand promises. One man even told her that he would take her to Asia for their honeymoon, wouldn't that be grand? She could see some beautiful places like India or China. Some also bring titles and the like. I wouldn't be surprised if some monarch asked her hand in marriage one day!"

Actually, I would be very surprised. It was true that Alice was beautiful and came a near second in the number of marriage proposals (second only to the beautiful and already married Rosalie) but no one that grand would ever extend a marriage offer to anyone except Rosalie and her exceptional beauty. My mind strayed to Rosalie so often these days because her hate for me had increased and I still had no idea why she hated me. There was no reason to be jealous of me, her brother was a proprietor, she was married to a lovely and jolly man, she was our star singer, and she was much more beautiful than me. I wondered if I would ever understand why she hated me so much.

A wave of uncertainty with a hint of sorrow and determination hit me. I wondered again at how Jasper could project his feelings onto me, for as I looked upon his face they were certainly his feelings. His face was torn and despite the objections of my mind, my mouth asked, "Are you considering courting Alice?"

My gloved hand immediately flew to my mouth, which was wide open in shock at what I had just said. No matter how comfortable I was around M. Jasper Hale I needed to remember my place in the opera house, he was my superior. Why can't I just keep my ( mouth shut? I wondered as he looked at me with a blank face.

Suddenly he smiled, though. "I think I love her," was his simple reply.

After that he turned and walked away, leaving me alone in the room to think about what had happened and what he had confessed. I knew that he meant it, too; I could feel it from the core of me. Damned Jasper and his empathy, how could he do this to me? Maybe I could star in the opera after all, with all of this to distract me. Alice's love for Jasper was about to tested. The poor dear, they belonged together.

I wondered what I should tell Alice. I decided that I should probably talk to Esme first. There was no one more understanding or wise in all of Paris, and maybe in all of France.

It was difficult the rest of the day to keep my thoughts to myself around Alice, for I had yet to find time to talk to Esme and the only thought on Alice's mind was Jasper. I was certain that they were meant to be, but I was afraid to meddle, I was afraid to be responsible for breaking their hearts. Jasper kept his distance from the two of us the rest of the day. Alice wasn't sure what it meant and neither was I, but for an entirely different reason. Alice did not know about my encounter with Jasper, so she was wondering if our dancing was that good or that bad. I, on the other hand, wondered if it was because he was shy about the fact that he loved Alice, if it was because I was around and he wanted to talk to her alone about it, or if he did not want to act on his feelings and had decided to find someone else. It would be terrible were it the last one. I would feel sorry for them both. They were in love with each other, life would be so much simpler if they could simply walk up to one another and say, "I love you, let's get married." Life doesn't work that way, I suppose.

Late at night I sat pondering this in my room and my angel spoke to me through the walls. It was not as if I thought him an angel in the literal sense (I'm not crazy), but he was so similar to an angel. I'd never seen him but I knew he must be incredibly beautiful. His voice even made instructions sound like music. I hadn't a clue why he was wasting his time instructing me and not singing the lead in the opera himself. They would gladly accept him and cover any past sin (though I do not believe he has one) to have him sing for them. With my angel with me I could not be too unhappy about what was transpiring between Jasper and Alice, but he must have noticed that I was not in my usual spirits.

"Is everything alright, my dearest Bella? Clearly something troubles you, it is written on your face. You have no secrets from me, is it the opera between your good friend Alice and her admirer Jasper?" he asked, his voice making the question a musical demand. How could I refuse him, especially since he already knew?

My sigh made him laugh his beautiful laugh. It took me a minute but I finally replied, "My angel, it is indeed my friend Alice. I spoke with Mr. Hale today; he confessed his love for her to me! I do not know what to do! He has kept his distance all today as though he is shying away from his interest in her. I hope it is not so! I wish for nothing more than Alice's happiness in life. How happy she would be with Jasper Hale, she is so completely and irrevocably in love with that good man. He would understand too, about her visions of the future, because he is an empath. What joy it could be to have an empath for a husband! If they are truly to be wed, what happiness they shall know!" I lay down on my bed, exhausted with excitement and worry. The last thing on my mind then was the opera.

"To think that Jasper would give up so true a love so quickly is the utmost foolery. I have never known such silliness of you, Bella, are you quite all right? The entirety of the time he shied away from you two as you practiced he thought only of dear Alice's beauty and of possible ways to propose to her. Have you read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice? That is a good example of a very poor way to propose," he said, I could hear the smile in his voice. I know that he said that last part to distract me from my worries, my angel was so good to me.

"My angel," I whispered, "when will I have the honor of seeing you?"

"Not for some time," He replied shortly. I had no idea why he was so dead set against us meeting as real people, face to face. Perhaps he actually was horrendously disfigured. It didn't matter, he would be beautiful anyway. It was imprinted on his soul and his voice. I was drawn out of my reverie by his voice saying, "If we are done with these follies, we must have a lesson. You are to sing the lead soon."

OMG REVIEW!!!1!!! IF YOU DON'T, I'LL QUITE WRITING TEH FIC AND BREK BOTH OF MY HNADS!!11!!!!2!!!!!! GIMME TWELBE REVIEWS OR ELSE!!1!!!!1!2

Nah, just kidding. I'm sorry it has taken me so incredibly long to update, everyone. I hope you enjoy what I have finally gotten around to having for you. Hopefully I'll update sooner this time, huh? Jake will probably be introduced next chapter or the one after. In all seriousness, please do review if you enjoyed my story.