Wow, it's been awhile. I'm sorry for that. If you stayed with me this long I appreciate it and hope you continue to hold out for the rest of this story because I do know who's going to win and how everyone's going to get to the end. I just have to sit down and get the creative juices flowing to finish writing it all down. Lots of love, your all wonderful, Darkrose.

Chapter- 44

"The Hat"

Pov-Bella

"So," Edward started as he waited for me to finish brushing out my hair. "Do you think your mom liked me?"

I scoffed at him as I put my brush back in the bathroom and started digging through my clothes. I needed to do my laundry again. "I'm pretty sure you had all of them wrapped around your little fingers." I told him honestly. "Erika thought you were very charming. She told me I'm supposed to sweat talk you into moving to Arizona and joining our school."

He chuckled, "Arizona wouldn't be so bad. I bet you don't get much rain there."

"Two extremes, no rain for months and everything dries up, or so much rain at once that things flood." I agreed. "It was just a little lunch."

Edward had joined my Mom, Ericka, Summer and I for lunch yesterday on our day off after the last show before they took a flight back home. We'd gone to a small café that served good soup and chatted the morning away.

"Yeah," He agreed "So what, you made a great first impression on my parents. I didn't want to make myself look stupid."

I stopped in front of him, stood on my toes and gave him a quick kiss. "You couldn't make yourself look stupid if you tried."

"Oh yes I could." He disagreed. Then he reached into my closet and pulled out a blue tank top with crossed straps that I'd bypassed earlier. "Wear this one. It makes your eyes stand out."

"There's a hole in the side." I said sticking my finger in the tinny hole. I must have rubbed against something the last time I'd worn it.

"Who's going to see you in it other then the other dancers?" He asked. "I don't think any of them will care, if they even notice."

I tossed my pajama top onto the bed and pulled the shirt over my head. Edward fixed one of the straps for me and then stuck his finger in the hole. "See not so bad." He poked me in the ribs and I giggled.

"Stop that."

He smiled at me. "Ticklish?" He asked.

"No I'm not" I said sharply, "Don't even think about it."

He smirked again, that stupid/sexy little thing he could do were only one side of his mouth moved. "I'm thinking about it." He said.

He jumped at me and I ducked under his arm. "Edward, don't."

I grabbed my shoes and bolted out the door with Edward hot on my tail. Alice was in the hall with Leah and they laughed as we ran past them and cheered Edward on. I was going to get them later for that.

He caught me in the stairwell and pinned me against the wall. "No" I shrieked as he started tickling me. "That's not fair. "I complained gasping for breath, "You're not ticklish, there's no way for me to retaliate."

"Yes he is."

Edward jumped and I shrieked again as Emmett and Jasper came into the stairwell and laughed at us.

"I am not." Edward said quickly.

"Yes he is." Emmett repeated smiling at me. "But for my own enjoyment I'm not going to tell you where so don't even think about asking me Bells."

I shut my mouth and scowled at him, "Oh come on Emmett. Help me out here."

"I am helping you." He said with an evil chuckle. "Now you've got to find it for yourself."

"That's just cruel." I complained.

"It's ingenious." Jasper commented. Emmett beamed at him proudly.

"What is?" Alice asked as she and Leah pushed into the stairwell with us. She settled easily into Jaspers side and he hooked an arm around her shoulders.

"Emmett's found another way to torment our little Bella and young Edward." He explained.

"The words 'Emmett' and 'ingenious' can't be used in the same sentence." Edward mocked, "It's not possible in the English language."

"Oh bring it on little bro." Emmett said flexing his arms. "I could bench press you and your fancy-pants education."

"Ok you two knock it off." Leah said, putting her hands on her hips. "We should get down to the lounge so we can eat before Cat shows up."

We all agreed and followed her down to get breakfast. Cat had informed us last night that we wouldn't be getting a lot of free time this week. She said we were going to need every hour we got and that little hint had most of the dancers on edge.

Everyone had finished eating by the time Cat came to get us from the lounge. She was all dressed up and accompanied by a team of camera men for the morning's shoot. "Come on, everyone" She said waving us to follow her. "We've got to shoot you drawing this week's styles down on the stage."

Everyone got up and started following after Cat. "Dang it." I said. I glanced up at Edward as we left last. "Do you think she'd notice if I ran up stairs quick?"

"For what?" He asked.

"There's a hole in my shirt, remember?"

He rolled his eyes. "A tinny hole in one of you work-out shirts. You've been hanging out with Alice too much. She's a bad influence on you."

I shrugged. "Yeah probably but I like her anyways."

"What style do you think we'll get this time?"

"Who knows."

Cat lined everyone up on the stage and then she brought out her demon black hat. The cameras were rolling and she gave us the run down about stepping forward one at a time to learn what styles our pairs would be doing this week. The tension was thick around the dancers and we waited for Cat to call someone forward.

"Bella," She said. "Why don't you come pick first?"

I came up and stuck my hand in the hat fishing around for one of the cards. Oh please don't be Ballet. I said in my head and locked my fingers around a card. I pulled it out and unfolded the piece of paper.

"What's it say?" Alice asked when I didn't read it out loud right away.

I blinked at the word thinking that I must have forgotten how to read overnight.

"What did we get?" Edward asked.

I held up the paper so everyone could see. "I got Emmett."

Shock ran around the room and Cat started clapping her hands. "That's right everyone, with James injury we decided to mix up the pairs early this season. Ladies I want you all to come line up and draw your new partners."

Cat grabbed my arm and steered me to where Emmett was waiting off to the side and I locked eyes with Edward across the stage. He shrugged, not sure what to make of this new twist. I gave him a little pinky wave then gave Emmett a hug.

"This is gunna be great Bella." He said hooking his arm easily over my shoulder. "Granted I'm a bit thrown right now. It'll be odd not dancing with Leah anymore."

Tanya was next and I crossed my fingers that she wouldn't get Edward. She opened the card and scowled at it. When she held it up, I watched Ben's face fall. Poor guy was going to get eaten alive. Leah pulled Eric and then Rosalie pulled Edward's name.

Victoria and Alice were last and Cat took a moment to talk to the camera some more.

"Ok girls there's only two boys left. Victoria why don't you go next?"

Victoria grabbed a card out of the hat and held it out to the camera . "Jake"

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at the smile on Alice's face. She didn't even bother to grab the last card before skipping off to Jasper's side and hooking her arm through his. "I found my partner." She said.

Cat got out another hat and let each of the boys pull a card. Each of the cards had a number on it. Emmett's card had a 3 on it.

"The number on your card corresponds to a studio number up stairs." Cat explained. "You'll find your choreographers inside them. Good luck everyone."

I climbed the stairs with Emmett and glanced over my shoulder at Edward. He didn't see me, he was talking to Rosalie about something. Emmett opened the door and the first three pairs went onto the third floor. Edward's studio was on the fourth floor.

"Who do you think it is?" Emmett asked as we stopped outside the door to studio three.

I shrugged. "I don't know." I said.

"Hey," He said. "I know you're kind of sweet on my brother but you're paying attention right?" He asked.

I nodded. "Oh course."

"Good." He said. "I just wanted to make sure. Let's see if we can score higher than Him and Rosalie."

I smirked. "Sounds like a good plan."

"It won't matter if you score higher then Edward."

I turned around as another voice cut into our conversation to find Jasper and Alice standing in front of the studio next to ours, watching us.

"And why won't it matter?" Emmett asked.

She smirked. "Because Jasper and I are still going to kick all of your asses."

"In your dreams Shorty." Emmett shot back.

"You're going to have to get better insults." Alice said. "I'm only 5'1 Emmett, people have been calling me short since the second grade."

"Yeah, but I don't really mean it as an insult." Emmett said. "It's more a term of brotherly endearment said in teasing form of affection."

I blinked at him, surprised at the string of long words.

"What?" He asked.

I smirked at him. "That was cute."

He shrugged and lowered his lips to my ear. "I'm very cute, but we still have to crush the midget ok?"

I nodded. "ok"

Emmett threw the door open and we both jumped inside.

"Tabitha!" Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo were waiting for us inside and I rushed to give them both a big hug. "It's so good to see you guys again."

"Bella!" Tabitha gave me a quick hug and then moved on to Emmett so Napoleon could hook an arm over my shoulder.

"I was hoping we'd get to see you again Bella." He said. "You too ready to work hard?"

"Of course." Cheered Emmett, "We need to beat my brother and the little midget this week, so we've got to haul majorly."

Tabitha laughed. "I'm so glad we finally get the chance to work with you Emmett." She said. "You're going to love this number."

"I am the Hip-hop guy around here." He said with a smirk.

I grimaced remembering my disastrous last attempt at Hip-hop. I'd finally been allowed to take off my brace as long as I still wore it at night to protected my hand. "I'll try not to punch you in the face." I said solemnly.

They all chuckled at me and Emmett assured us all that he had a hard head and could take a hit or two.

"Hopefully she won't hit you at all." Napoleon said. "This week you're going to be doing a flirty love hip-hop dance. No fighting."

"What song?" Emmett asked.

Napoleon left my side and hit the play button so we could hear our music selection. Emmett rolled his eyes and I shot him a stupid grin. "Perfect"

"I hate Jessie McCartney." He said.

"But this song is so catchy." I said as Jessie McCartney and T-pains song "Body Language" played around the room.

"And we have awesome choreography to go with it." Tabitha promised. Then she ordered us to stretch and get ready because she was going to eat us alive.

By lunch my legs hurt and I'd sweated through my shirt to the point where I didn't even both to put it back on as Emmett and I slugged our way down stairs. The dance was lots of fun and it was going to be great by next Wednesday's show.

While we'd worked Napoleon had told us about the inspiration behind it. Emmett would be playing the leader of a local gang and I would be playing the local "Good girl." Emmett would fall for me and proceed to corrupt me with his "Bad boy" way. Apparently I would start the dance in a conservative outfit and later reveal something more fun under it, but I wouldn't get to see it until our fitting tomorrow.

Emmett still hadn't warmed up to the song but he was looking forward to rubbing it in Edward's face that he was getting to do a love song with me.

"But, Edward and I have already done a couple of love songs." I reminded him. "Actually most of our songs have been about finding love, losing love, saving love or having sex."

Emmett chuckled. "And then there was the time you committed suicide."

"And that one." I agreed.

We got our food and sat down with Alice and Jasper.

"You two look beat." Jasper said.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Alice added. "Your new dance to hard for you?"

"You wish." Emmett said.

The door opened up and Rose and Edward came into the lounge. Neither one of them looked to happy as they grabbed sandwiches and joined us.

"What's up?" Emmett asked.

"Sorry." Edward mumbled busying himself with pouring us both water.

Rose smiled and waved him off. "Edward can't do one of the lifts in our dance." Rose explained. "It's not that big a deal."

"I dropped you." Edward said. "Twelve times."

She smiled. "The shoes they've got me wearing make me taller than him."

"Change the lift." Alice said at the same time Jasper said "Change the shoes."

"We'll figure it out." Rose said.

Leah, her partner this week, Erik, and Jake came in a few moments later. Leah was using her crutches now and Jake got her food while Erik helped her prop her foot up and gave her the ice pack he was holding.

"How's the digit holding up?" Emmett asked.

Leah groaned and started to unwrap it. "Hurts like hell." She said. Once the bandage was off she leaned back so we could all see it. Her ankle was red and dotted with bruises. Leah poked it and hissed. "Shit"

"Stop that" Jake said sitting down next to her and passing her a plate of food. "Doc said to unwrap it and ice it threw lunch."

"You'd never know it hurt this bad in rehearsal." Erik said sitting down with the rest of us. "She's amazing. I don't think I could do half of the things she's doing on that ankle."

Leah rolled her eyes and took a big snap out of her sandwich. "They're making the choreography very easy so I don't have to push myself."

"The floor works cool" Erik said.

Leah rolled her eyes. "It's irritating as hell. There's only one lift in the whole dammed thing."

"Well that probably for the better right?" I asked. "You don't want to risk hurting it more. This way it won't interfere with your dance."

She shrugged again. "I guess."

Lunch passed quickly and the second half of rehearsal moved slowly. I ached all over when it was done and dragged myself into the shower still in my sports bra and spandex. I striped, washed my hair, and took time to let my mussels relax. Once the hot water was gone I wrapped myself in a robe and dragged my wet clothes along with my other dirty clothes to the wash room and dumped them all into one of the washers.

"Great minds think alike."

I glanced over my shoulder to see Edward, hair wet and in a pair of gray sweats, carrying his dirty clothes.

I smiled. "How'd the rest of your rehearsal go?" I asked.

He dumped his clothes into the washer next to mine and shrugged. "Alright I guess, we didn't get very far but we finally got that lift down."

"They change the shoes?" I asked.

He nodded. "Lower shoes and we modified the lift a bit so it's slower, but a little more showy. I don't have trouble getting her into the air it was setting her down with knocking her over, I couldn't manage."

We swung by my room so I could pull on a clean set of underwear, a new tank-top and a pair of sweats then headed down to dinner. The producers had ordered us pizza and I helped myself to two large, greasy slices of cheese before we joined the others. Ben and Erik were locked in a game of chess and it took an hour and a half before the pizza was gone and Erik managed to take Ben's king.

Victoria never spoke to me but at least she wasn't shooting me death glares anymore. James called on the lounge phone and we all got the chance to talk to him. He was going into surgery tomorrow and wished us all luck. He apologized a hundred times to Leah and then wished us all good luck.

"Alright" Leah said. "I'm going to bed."

I stood up and helped her stand up and get her crutches.

"I'll help you get to your room." Alice offered.

"Bed sounds like a good idea." Tanya agreed heading out of the room behind them.

Everyone got up and tossed their plates out, gathering their things and making their way off towards the staircase. Edwards and I climbed the stairs and I waved him up as I stopped on the girl's floor. I changed into my pajamas and grabbed my pillow, double-checking that the hallway was empty before scuttling to the stairs and climbing to the boy's floor.

The hallway was empty so I walked on my toes and knocked lightly on Edward's door. The door to the stair well creaked and I jumped, waiting for someone to come out and bust me in the hallway. Edward opened his door and smiled.

"What's wrong he asked?"

I shrugged, moving past him and closing the door behind me. "I thought I heard something on the staircase."

"I didn't see anyone."

"It was probably one of the girls down stairs."

He took the pillow and tossed it on the bed. "Man I'm beat."

I flipped of the main light and sat on the bed while he gathered his pajamas. "How was working with Rose this week?"

He stepped into the bathroom but left the door open so we could talk. "It was alright. She's really good. We just don't seem to sync the way you and I do."

He came back into the room and crawled across to his side. I kissed him on the cheek and laid back. "I missed you too."

He chuckled. "How was working with Emmett?"

"Your brothers a beast." I said. "It was like working with the energizer bunny. I know he was tiered, but he didn't slow down once."

He set his alarm and turned off the bedside lamp. "Endurance is probably one of Emmett greatest dancing strengths. He's always been able to go for hours. However, I'm not sure if that will last much longer. I don't think he's been getting enough sleep."

"That makes two of us." I snuggled into his side and smiled when he rested his check against my head. "Good night Bella."

~Darkrose

Finally another chapter done. I've been wanting to do this song for awhile. Is everyone watching the newest season of SYTYCD! I know I am. I'm really liking Sasha so far. I made a promise at the beginning of this story not to stop until I was done and I intend to keep my word. Special thanks to "Steph" for all of her review, they gave me the push I needed to finish this chapter. Now I'm excited for the next one!